Mumbai, June 15: AN epic about Muslim and Hindu lovers has dominated the International Indian Film Academy Awards as the Bollywood brand went global to 500 million people.
Jodhaa Akbar won six awards, including best picture, best director and best male actor for Hrithik Roshan.
The film depicts the rise of the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, a Muslim, and his Hindu wife, played by former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
“I was advised by all my friends not to make this film,” director Ashutosh Gowariker said yesterday after the ceremony in the Chinese territory of Macau.
The film’s popularity had “reinstated my faith that we do need a Hindu-Muslim alliance” in India, he said.
Roshan urged his fans among the 8000 gathered at the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel to “have the courage to live free and live the truth”.
Former Miss World Priyanka Chopra won Best Performance in a Lead Role (Female) for her role as a model dealing with the seedy side of the business in Fashion.
Chopra paid tribute to the fans who had flocked to Macau for the three-day IIFA event from all over the world — and who had sat through the nearly seven-hour award ceremony.
“We Indians are everywhere,” she said. The ceremony, now in its 10th year, is staged outside India to boost Bollywood’s profile.
It involves premieres, media sessions, trade forums, and a fashion show.
IIFA director Sabbas Joseph said this year’s awards celebrated a decade of achievement for Bollywood.
“This is really a golden decade for Indian cinema,” he said.
Organisers said the awards would be watched by 500 million people on television around the world. Jodhaa Akbar also collected a bag of technical awards, stealing the spotlight from the powerful Bachchan clan.
Family patriarch Amitabh Bachchan was feted, while Rai picked up awards early in the night for Star of the Decade (Female) and Outstanding Achievement by an Indian in International Cinema.
Rai’s husband, Abhishek, picked up a gong for Best Performance in a Comedy Role (Male) for his turn in Dostana, and the couple sang and danced during the event.
One of the first to applaud them was veteran actor Kabir Bedi, who starred as the evil Gobina in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.
“This night means the internationalisation of the entire brand of Bollywood,” he said. “Brand Bollywood has gone global.”
—Agencies