Macau, June 14: Bollywood director Ashutosh Gowarikar’s historical love epic ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ swept the 10th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards here, taking home trophies for best picture, best director and best actor.
The movie tracing the rise of the great Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century and his romance with Hindu princess Jodhaa took home 10 trophies in total including the gong for the ‘Best Film’.
Hrithik Roshan’s portrayal of the Muslim monarch won him the ‘Best Actor’ trophy while Gowarikar won the Best Director award for his epic drama which wove together romance and communal harmony.
The film which had nominations in all the categories faced stiff competition from other superhit contenders like ‘Ghajini’, ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Dostana’, ‘Rock On’ and ‘Race’.
However, Aishwarya failed to bag the Best Actress trophy, which went to Priyanka Chopra for her power-packed performance as a small town girl who makes it big in the world of fashion in Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’.
Others contenders in this category were Asin, Katrina Kaif and Bipasha Basu.
” When I started I was advised not to make the film depicting two religions coming together because the situation in the country at that point of time was not right. But I am happy that I made a film which is based on Hindu-Muslim unity,” Gowariker said accepting his award at the ceremony. Double Oscar-winning musician A R Rahman won the Best Music Director award for the period romance while Javed Akhtar walked away with the Best Lyricist trophy for ‘Jashn-e-Bahara’ with Javed Ali bagging the Best Playback singer(male) award for the same song.
‘Jodha Akbar’ also won a total of five awards for technical excellence with Best Costume Design for Neeta Lulla, Best Editing for Ballu Saluja, Best Art Direction for Nitin Chandrakant Desai and Best Make Up for Madhav Kadam.
While the epic drama loomed large with it’s impressive wins, Arjun Rampal took home a trophy for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ‘Rock On’.
The actor had earlier won his first Filmfare for the film forgot and had forgotten to mention the name of superstar Amitabh Bachchan in his acceptance speech and made up for it this time.
“I now want to thank someone I have always looked up to as my inspiration and that is none other than Amitabh Bachchan,” said the actor before thanking his family members.
The other winners in the supporting categories were Kangana Ranaut, who won the Best Supporting actress trophy for her turn as a troubled supermodel in ‘Fashion’. Akshaye Khanna won the Best Negative role for ‘Race’.
Actor Abhishek Bachchan, who won the trophy for Best Actor in Comic Role for his gay act in Karan Johar’s ‘Dostana’, became teary eyed as he thanked his legendary father sitting in the front row. “When I was a child I saw ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’ and I told myself that I want to be like him (Big B) and I am here because of him. I thank my mother and my wife. Aish, I only love you. This award is also for Amar Singhji, who is recuperating in a hospital,” Abhishek said.
But the highlight of the evening extravaganza at the Kotai Arena of the grand Venetian hotel was the Lifetime Achievement award for yesteryear’s superstar Rajesh Khanna. The honour was presented to the veteran actor by none other than his co-star of many movies — Amitabh Bachchan.
The mega star expressed his appreciation for Khanna with a short speech.
” For the first time in the Indian cinema he coined the word superstar. I am lucky to have had the privileged to work with him. He was such a phenomenon that women used to put the dust left off his car to their heads,” said Bachchan, who first starred with Khanna in ‘Anand’.
Khanna hugged Bachchan before saying that it was after 16 years that they were sharing the same platform and went on to address Bachchan with his famous screen name ‘Babu Moshay’ from Anand.
“God bless you Babu Moshay thank you. You are very close to my heart,” said Khanna quoting the famous dialogue from the movie.
–Agencies