Mumbai, Aug 16 (IANS): Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, who is making his Telugu debut with the upcoming film 'Devara: Part 1', had once bashed Bollywood award shows for their sheer lack of any ethical grounds, and how they fool the audience sitting at home.

A resurfaced video of the actor shows him talking to Anupama Chopra, as he said, "I don't know why I've always done it. Honestly, if you ask me and if we take an ethical stand on it, there's no such thing as an award function."

He called it the "biggest joke in the world" as every channel has their own award show.

He continued, "They give these guys an award for turning up, and then they make amazing categories like 'Most Beautiful Smile' and 'Most Glamorous Diva'. You don't even remember who got the Best Actor (award) for what. We all turn up because let's face it -- we are suckers. People turn up when they probably shouldn't. What really disturbs me is that it's a lie because the material is not funny."

He further mentioned, "Nobody is making a funny joke but they intercut it with everybody laughing. You make a bad joke and the audience at home say 'I don't know if that's funny' but everybody there is laughing. They are like what is it that except me, 30,000 people in the audience are laughing (except that they are not). So, it's a con."

"The only people being cheated are the audience. It's a disturbing thing deep down. It's completely false. There's not enough money spent on the humour. There's not enough money spent on entertainment. They spend money on the songs and the dances and everything that suits the sponsors," he added.