MUMBAI: At the glittering Filmfare awards last night, “Dangal” swept away three of four major awards — Best Film, Aamir Khan won Best Actor and Nitesh Tiwari won Best Director award while Alia Bhatt won the Filmfare Best Actor Award (Female) for her performance in “Udta Punjab”.
Attended by most actors of the Bollywood film fraternity, the iconic 62nd Jio Filmfare Awards was a star-studded event hosted by actor Shah Rukh Khan.
After winning the Best Director award, Nitesh Tiwari said, “This award is the reassurance of how much people loved our film (Dangal). So I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone in India and abroad who loved and supported our film. It means everything.”
Alia, who came along with her mother Soni Razdan and sister Shaheen Bhatt, received the Best Actor (Female) award from Sridevi and Boney Kapoor.
After receiving the award, she said, “It’s very close to my heart (Udta Punjab). Thank you Shahid for sending the script to me. Today is very special day for me. Sridevi ji receiving it from you is an honour. Another reason is my sister is here. Got her out of home.”
Sharing her father Mahesh Bhatt’s message, the actor said, “My dad said ‘I feel you are going to win. You should do what you feel. If you feel like crying, cry.’ This is a dream come true for me. Finally Thanks Karan for giving her the first break.”
In other awards, actress Sonam Kapoor won the Critics’ Award For Best Actor (Female) for her performance in “Neerja” while actors Manoj Bajpayee and Shahid Kapoor shared the award for their portrayals in “Aligarh” and “Udta Punjab” respectively, in the Male category.
While Sonam got emotional on receiving the award from film director duo Abbas-Mustan, Shahid said: “I am very excited to get it and I want to thank Filmfare for this. It’s a good day!”
Director Ram Madhvani won Critics’ Award For Best Film for “Neerja”.
Sooraj Pancholi and Kriti Sanon presented the Filmfare Best Debut Awards Male and Female to Diljit Dosanjh for “Udta Punjab” and Ritika Singh for “Saala Khadoos” respectively.
While Diljit sung ‘Ikk kudi’ after winning the award, Ritika said, “I’ve never acted before. For those who don’t know, I am a wrestler.”
Shatrughan Sinha received the prestigious Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award presented by his daughter, actress Sonakshi Sinha.
After winning the award, the veteran actor said, “Many people feel if you get the Lifetime Achievement Award it’s the end, but I feel it’s just the beginning.”
Moreover, action director and stunt coordinator Shyam Kaushal won the award for Best Action for the film “Dangal” and Payal Saluja won Best Costume for “Udta Punjab”.
Karan Johar’s “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” was one of the most celebrated films of the evening, with four awards.
While Arijit Singh won the Best Playback (Male) for the title song of “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”, Pritam bagged the Best Music Director and the Best Music Album. Amitabh Bhattacharya won the award for Best Lyrics for “Channa Mereya” from the same film.
After winning the award, Pritam said, “My first thanks to KJo. Without him it wouldn’t have been possible. I want to take this award home for my children.”
Neha Bhasin won the Best Playback Singer (Female) for ‘Jag Ghoomeya’ from “Sultan”. Holding her precious ‘black lady’, Neha hummed the song and said, “I would like to thank the entire team of Filmfare, you guys rock!”
The film “Kapoor and Sons” won three awards — Rishi Kapoor won The Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male); Adil Shaikh won Best Choreography for ‘Kar Gayi Chul’, and Shakun Batra and Ayesha Devitre won the Best Story and Best Screenplay for “Kapoor and Sons”.
“Cannot thank Filmfare enough for giving such a great start to our new year and we want to work harder this year,” the duo said after winning the award.
On the other hand, the much acclaimed film “Neerja” won four awards. Shabana Azmi won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female), Aparna Sud and Anna Ipe won for Best Production Design; Mitesh Munchandani won for Best Cinematography and Monisha R Baldawa won the award for Best Editing.
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari bagged the the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director for her highly appreciated film “Nil Battey Sannata”, which starred Swara Bhaskar.
In performances, Salman Khan danced to some of his hit songs, such as ‘O o jaane jaana’, ‘Munni badnam hui’ and ‘Sultan’. Actor Tiger Shroff grooved to hits like ‘The Pappi Song’, ‘Aa raha hoon main’ and ‘Dhoom Again’.