52nd Filmfare Awards - XVI

There is some trivia related to Filmfare Awards that I chanced upon on >

Wikipedia

. I thought it made interesting reading. So, here goes some Trivia on Filmfare Awards.

They were first introduced in 1953. Readers of Filmfare magazine were polled to decide the winners, and over 20,000 readers spread throughout India participated in the polls; trophies were given to winners of the popular vote.

In the first awards function, held on March 21, 1954, only five awards were presented – for the best film , the best director, the best actor, the best actress, and the best music director. Do Bigha Zameen was the first movie to win the award for the best film. The first four winners for other categories were: Bimal Roy for direction of Do Bigha Zameen, Dilip Kumar for his performance in Daag, Meena Kumari for her performance in Baiju Bawra, and Naushad for his music in Baiju Bawara.

Interesting Trivia:

The Clares was the original name of the award ceremony, named after Filmfare critic Clare Mendionca.

To celebrate the 25th year of the awards the statues were made in silver.

To celebrate the 50th year the statues were made in gold.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - XV

Best Director – Rakeysh Mehra for Rang De Basanti –The competition in this category was very stiff. My bets were Rajkumar Hirani for Lage Raho Munnabhai, Rakesyh Mehra for Rang De Basanti and Vishal Bharadwaj for Omkara. For some strange reason, I wanted Vishal Bharadwaj to win this award. At the cost of being repetitive, I think Omkara is a masterpiece and that Vishal Bharadwaj should be acknowledged as one of the best. I feel he’s one of the best film-makers we have today. However, full marks and credit to Rakeysh Mehra for Rang De Basanti and congratulations on a job very well done.

Best Film – Rang De Basanti – I thought there was stiff competition in this category as well between Rang De Basanti and Lage Raho Munnabhai as I thought both were absolutely deserving winners. I’m glad one of the two won. I was a bit skeptical as Krrish and Dhoom 2 were also in the running. Although I though both were very average films, but they had done stupendous business and hence I thought could give Lage Raho Munnabhai and Rang De Basanti a run for their money. All’s well that ends well!

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52nd Filmfare Awards - XIV

Best Actress – Kajol for Fanaa – Kajol has been one of my favourite actresses and I would have rooted for her anyways. So to that extend, I may have been biased a bit. However, even on merits, amongst the other contenders, I thought Kareena Kapoor for Omkara was the only genuine competition to Kajol. Inspite of my fondness for Kajol as a performer, I thought she was average in Fanaa. I’m glad she won.

Best Actor – Hrithik Roshan for Dhoom 2 –Very high on the popularity and coolness quotient! Looks totally the stud that he is in this film! And his dancing in the song Dhoom Machale is one hell of a performance! Initially, I thought he stood a better chance of winning for Krrish than Dhoom 2. However, it wasn’t to be. Other than himself, I thought the other contenders were Aamir Khan for Rang De Basanti and Sunjay Dutt for Lage Raho Munnabhai. It was a shame that Saif Ali Khan wasn't nominated in this category for his Langda Tyagi performance in Omkara.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - XIII

Best Supporting Actress – Konkona Sen Sharma for Omkara – I think Konkona Sen Sharma is a very good performer. However, this category was a bit of confusion as there seemed to be no real contender. I thought Kirron Kher might get it for Rang De Basanti and Konkona Sen Sharma was my second choice. Anyways, Konkona Sen Sharma’s performance was good.

Best Supporting Actor – Abhishek Bachchan for Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna – He was the most natural performer in this sorry reason of a movie called Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. However, I still think it was not worthy of this award. Fortunately for Abhishek Bachchan, this was one of the least contested category and he won pretty easily.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - XII

Best Actor in a Comic Role – Arshad Warsi for Lage Raho Munnabhai – This category was a no brainer. I think Arshad Warsi could stake a claim on this award for his antics as the lovable sidekick Circuit in Lage Raho Munnabhai. Even though one of his competitor was Paresh Rawal who is a veteran and a stalwart, I think Arshad Warsi just creamed the competition. He would have done it even if there were the best of the actors competing with him.

Best Actor in a Negative Role – Saif Ali Khan for Omkara – Just like Arshad Warsi, Saif Ali Khan also took this award as a matter of right. Like Arshad Warsi, even Saif Ali Khan had a tough competitor in Naseeruddin Shah. However, he would have beaten any competition for this award. I repeat this I was a tad disappointed to see Saif Ali Khan’s nomination in this category because he deserved a nomination in the Best Actor category. Had he been nominated in that category, I think he would have definitely given Hrithik Roshan a run for his money!

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52nd Filmfare Awards - XI

Best Female Playback Singer – Sunidhi Chauhan for Beedi Jalalile (Omkara) – The only other contender to this nomination was Shreya Ghoshal for her rendition of Pal Pal Pal in Lage Raho Munnabhai. Sunidhi Chauhan sung this song with lot of spunk. She has developed quite a niche for herself in singing these kind of peppy numbers songs.

Best Male Playback "Singer – Shaan / Kailash Kher for Chand Sifarish (Fanaa) – This was one of my favourite songs. Roobaroo from Rang De Basanti and Chand Sifarish were two of the best songs of the year.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - X

Best Music – A. R. Rahman for Rang De Basanti – Definitely one of the best albums of last year and I am very happy that A. R. Rahman got this award and I was pretty sure that A. R. Rahman would get it for Rang De Basanti.

Sony Fairone Face of the Year and Filmfare Award for Best Debut – Kangna Ranaut – Frankly, I am not sure if there were any other contenders for both these awards. Kangna Ranaut is a Bhatt camp girl and has definitely made an impression in Bollywood. She had two releases this year (I think!) viz., Gangster (directed by Anurag Basu) and Who Lamhe (directed by Mohit Suri) and both the films did very well at the box office.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - IX

Critics Award for Best Film – Lage Raho Munnabhai –One of the best “feel good” hindi films I have seen in recent times. Howsoever clichéd it may sound, it is undeniable that there is a need for all of us today to reflect on the thinking of Mahatma Gandhi. And the statement couldn’t have been any more clearer. Great job done by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, the writers of Lage Raho Munnabhai and the endearing duo of Munna (Sunjay Dutt) and Circuit (Arshad Warsi)

Critics Award for Best Actress – Kareena Kapoor for Omkara – I thought she might get it in the main category for the Best Actress. However, it’s nonetheless a very well deserved award. I’ve never liked Kareena Kapoor as an actress but I thought she did a good job in Omkara.

Critics Award for Best Actor – Aamir Khan for Rang De Basanti – Aamir Khan doesn’t attend any film award functions. This is common knowledge. However, personally, I thought Aamir Khan should have won in the main category. However, considering the problems he has had since last year with Filmfare, it was unlikely that he would have received the honours in the main category. Of course, this is my personal view and I could be totally wrong here.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - VIII

Filmfare Power Award – Yash Chopra – I have not yet understood the importance (and most importantly, the need) for this award. For the last couple of years, Filmfare has introduced this award category and it probably is an Indian version of Hollywood’s 100 most Powerful People. Even when it is tested on the basis of the “philosophy”of the Filmfare Awards which is giving out awards to popular films and performances, this award does not stand on its ground. However, I am sure Filmfare would not be complaining if they get to cozy up to one of the most powerful men in the Bollywood.

Lifetime Achievement Award – Javed Akhtar and Jaya Bachchan – I do not understand why would Filmfare give this award to two people at a time. I have not come across any international film awards where they give the Lifetime Achievement Awards to more than one person in a year. I am sure Filmfare had their own reasons for giving out this award to two people. Javed Akhtar did not come as a surprise but Jaya Bachchan was indeed a surprise!

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52nd Filmfare Awards - VII

Best Screenplay – Jaideep Sahni for Khosla Ka Ghosla – I am most delighted for Jaideep Sahni. Khosla Ka Ghosla was one of the most genuine, touching and funny film that I saw this year. And I am glad that the talent of Jaideep Sahni has been recognized. Watching this film reminded me of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee - Basu Chatterjee kind of simple story telling.

Best Story – Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani for Lage Raho Munnabhai – Without repeating myself, I would say that this was well deserved!!

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52nd Filmfare Awards - VI

After the above honourable mentions, we now go ahead with some of the more popular awards.

Best Dialogue – Abhijat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai) – I thought that alongwith Rang De Basanti and Omkara, Lage Raho Munnabhai was one of the better films of the year. The dialogues of Lage Raho Munnabhai were indeed funny and endearing. The concept of “Gandhigiri” took the nation by storm. Although in my view, the hype about “Gandhigiri” was more media generated which eventually translated in superlative box office collections for the makers of Lage Raho Munnabhai. Even the makers of the film did not anticipate that “Gandhigiri” would become such a huge success.

Best Lyrics – Prasoon Joshi for Chand Sifarish (Fanaa) – This was one of my favourite songs this year and the lyrics were refreshing as well. I thought this was a good award and Prasoon Joshi is becoming one of the more popular lyricists in Bollywood. Needless to say, we need more lyricists like Prasoon Joshi to get better lyrics and fresh thinking in to the lyrics of our Hindi songs.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - V

Best Cinematography – Binod Pradhan for Rang De Basanti – Well deserved and well done!!!

Best Choreography – Ganesh Acharya for Beedi Jalaile for Omkara – Definitely one of the more rocking choreographies this year. Bipasha Basu, Vivek Oberoi and Saif Ali Khan simply sizzled on this Vishal Bharadwaj’s take on William Shakespeare’s Othello.

Best Art Direction – Samir Chanda for Omkara – Once again, very well deserved and well done!!!

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52nd Filmfare Awards - IV

Best Costume – Dolly Alhuwalia for Omkara – Very well done. The costumes did give the characters that rustic UP look and Ajay Devagan, Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi looked every bit of Omi Shukla, Langda Tyagi and Kesu Firangi respectively. And so did Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma and Bipasha Basu.

Best Action – Siu Tung Ching & Shyam Kaushan for Krrish – Undoubtedly, Krrish was one of the more popular films of this year and of course one of the biggest hits of the year. It also saw superlative action sequences hitherto unknown to the Hindi film industry. However, I must add here that even though this was quite an achievement by Indian standards, we still have a way to go if we want to match the production values and standards of Hollywood films. Without being biased, I must admit that the stunts in Hollywood films are really well executed. With Krrish, I hope that the standard of action in Hindi films goes up for the better.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - III

Best Background Score – Salim Sulaiman for Krrish – The stock of these two talented brothers has been on the rise, albeit slowly and steadily. Undoubtedly they are talented and it’s only fair that they get their bit of recognition.

R. D. Burman Award – Naresh Iyer for Roobaroo (Rang De Basanti) – As I had written in my posts on the 52nd Filmfare Awards Nomiantions, this song has become one of my time favourite songs and I am very pleased that Naresy Iyer won this award for “Roobaroo”. I wished he was nominated in the category of Best Playback Singer (Male). I am sure he has a great future in playback singing in Bollywood.

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52nd Filmfare Awards - II

Before we go on to the popular awards, I thought it would be apposite to list out some of the technical awards given out at the 52nd Filmfare Awards.

These technical awards were as follows:

Best Editing – Rang De Basanti – Personally, I think this is a very well deserving award. The concept of the film was very good and without taking away the credit for doing a wonderful job as an editor, I think that Rakeysh Mehra could have “edited” the last half an hour of the film to make it more genuine than “filmy”. The song “Roobaroo” has become one of my all time favourite songs and the lyrics and the setting of the song in the film very critical.

Best Special Effects – Marc Kolbe & Craig A Mumma for Krrish – The special effects for this film were a first as far as Bollywood films are concerned. However, if we have to emulate our colleagues in Hollywood, then we have a way to go. Nonetheless, it’s heartening to know that a beginning has been made with movies like Krrish and Dhoom 2.

Best Sound Design – K. J. Singh for Omkara

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52nd Filmfare Awards - I

It’s been almost two months since I wrote about the 52nd Filmfare Awards nominations. Actually, it was the week before the awards to be announced on February 24-25, 2007. I genuinely thought that I would be able to update my blog with the final awards after they are announced. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and here I am, almost two months after the 52nd Filmfare Awards were declared, I am writing my two bits about the final awards that were given out. The reasons for such a huge delay are both personal and professional. Be that as it may, better late than never.

The Filmfare Awards are the oldest and most popular film based awards in Hindi film industry. They are popular awards presented in various categories such as Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Music Director, Best Male Playback Singer, Best Female Playback Singer etc.

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