Rekha to receive Outstanding Achievement Award at IIFA

The 13th IIFA weekend and awards will be held in Singapore June 7 to 9.

After mesmerising audiences for over three decades, Bollywood siren Rekha will now be awarded for her ‘Outstanding Achievement in Indian Cinema’ at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2012, reports bollywoodlife.com.

“I am extremely humbled to be appreciated and considered for my contributions to the film fraternity. It has been a long journey and hopefully my passion and love for cinema will continue to reach out to all my fans. I am especially happy to be honoured at a time when the industry celebrates a centenary of Indian films,” Rekha said in a statement.

Daughter of south Indian film stars Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli, Rekha made her acting debut with Sawan Bhadon in 1970, which was followed by a string of hits like Namak Haram, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Khubsoorat, Silsila and Umrao Jaan.

Priyanka and Shahid to perform at IIFA

It will be time for some special tributes at the IIFA Awards ceremony this year where actor Priyanka Chopra will perform to evergreen Rekha’s numbers and Shahid Kapoor will groove to spicy old southern tracks, according to news agency IANS.

“This year I am doing an act which will be a tribute to Rekha. I love and adore Rekha-ji,” Chopra said at a press conference in Mumbai.

At the IIFA Awards held in Toronto last year, Chopra had paid a tribute to singer Asha Bhosle. She won many hearts with her power-packed performance. This year too, one expects her to do justice to the magic of Rekha.

Meanwhile, the actor’s Teri Meri Kahaani co-star Shahid Kapoor is upbeat about dancing to old south Indian film songs reports bollywoodspice.com.

“I will be performing some songs from Teri Meri Kahaani, and since there are a lot of southern actors who will attend IIFA this year, including legendary actor Kamal Hassan, we will be performing on old south songs,” said Kapoor.


“I’ll be performing on one song from Appu Raja. It is originally picturised on Kamal sir and it is a very cool song. I’m trying to learn the lyrics,” he added.

Rishi, Ranbir to perform together?

He is the current heartthrob of the industry while his father rocked the Bollywood scene with his effervescence in the 1980s. And if the audience in Singapore gets lucky, the father-son duo of Rishi and Ranbir Kapoor might share the stage at the upcoming IIFA awards night.

When asked if they plan to perform together, Ranbir chose to answer diplomatically at a press conference on Friday saying that he hopes to perform with his father but cannot confirm this as yet.

While the father-son duo is yet to be seen together in a film, the two have earlier featured in a TV commercial.

Ranbir says he will enthrall his fans in Singapore by performing on hits like “Sadda Haq” and “Tai Tai Phish”, as well as “one surprise”.

The flamboyant actor rarely performs at award functions, but the fact that ace dancer Prabhu Deva was choreographing his IIFA act drew him. “It is not that I don’t perform. I did not have the confidence to come on stage and perform. This time Prabhu Deva is choreographing and I love his choreography.

“So I wanted to perform. Prabhu is a dancing star not only of India, but of the world. He is better than Michael Jackson,” Ranbir said.

The IIFA weekend and awards ceremony is to be held June 7-9. The awards night will also see performances by actors Sonakshi Sinha and Bipasha Basu.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2012.
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