Screaming fans and heartwarming tributes sum up IIFA 2015

Kangna Ranaut and Shahid Kapoor bag awards for best performance in a lead role

Vikas Bahl’s drama Queen and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider bagged on Sunday major trophies at the grand finale of 16th edition of the IIFA awards, including the best actress honour for Kangana Ranaut. The show was co-hosted by Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff, Shahid Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan pulling some serious dance moves on stage.

Bahl’s directorial Queen bagged three awards: Best Picture, Best Story and Best Performance in a Leading Role — Female, reported IANS. The Kangana Ranaut-starrer was up against 2 States, PK, Haider, Highway and Mary Kom for the Best Picture trophy. Although Kangna was not present to collect her trophy for Best Performance in a Leading Role — female, the film’s director received the award on her behalf.

Bahl, however, lost the award in the Direction category to Rajkumar Hirani, who took home the trophy for PK. In the Leading Role Male category, Shahid Kapoor, who also performed at the award ceremony, walked home with the award for his performance in Haider. He had strong contenders, including Aamir Khan (PK), Hrithik Roshan (Bang Bang!), and Shah Rukh Khan (Happy New Year).Hrithik might have lost the award to Shahid, but his Bang Bang! act with a Bhangra twist won hearts of many, including Deepika Padukone, who was felicitated with Woman of the Year award. She was also nominated in the Best Performance in a Leading Role — Female.

Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh

Main Tera Hero star Varun Dhawan won an award for Best Performance in a Comic Role. The film’s director and his father David Dhawan received the sun-inspired trophy on his behalf.

The Best Music Direction award went to the popular trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for 2 States. Other contenders included Mithoon (Banjara, Zaroorat and Hamdard) and Ankit Tiwari (Galliyan), for which he won Best Playback Singer — Male. In the female category of the award, Baby doll singer Kanika Kapoor (for the film Ragini MMS 2) defeated Sultana and Jyoti Nooran for Patakha Guddi (Highway) and Shreya Ghoshal for Samjhawan (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania).

It was an emotional moment when the award for Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema was announced. The showman — Subhash Ghai — got on stage to receive it from Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, whom he worked with in the 1989 movie Ram Lakhan and more. Shraddha Kapoor also paid tribute to Ghai by performing songs from his films, such as Taal and Kisna.

A special tribute was paid to Shah Rukh and Kajol-starrer Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which completed 1,000 weeks of screening last year, by the show’s hosts, who also cracked jokes on their controversial AIB Roast video for which they got into trouble earlier this year. There were also moments when Ranveer got “distracted” due to presence of Deepika, whom he is romantically linked with.

Held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the award ceremony was attended by thousands of screaming fans, some of whom had flown in from different countries just to see their favourite stars at the ceremony, which celebrates Indian cinema in various foreign nations every year.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th,  2015.

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