DUBAI, 18 June 2006 — “Black,” the story of a dark deaf-mute girl, swept the prizes at Bollywood’s top film festival hosted this year in Dubai. Amitabh Bachchan won the best actor award. Rani Mukherjee, his co-star in “Black,” received the best actress award, while the trophy for best supporting role for a female was given to Ayesha Kapoor, also from “Black.
Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali picked up the best director honor for the film, in addition to the Best Film award.
The 7th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) festival concluded in Dubai on late Friday night with a dazzling, all-star awards ceremony featuring performances and appearances from some of the hottest stars in the Indian film industry at the Dubai Airport Expo.
In the other major award categories, best supporting actor went to Abishek Bachchan for his performance in Ram Gopal Varma’s film “Sarkar”, best actor in a negative role to veteran actor Nana Patekar for his role in “Apharan”, best actor in a comic role to Javed Jaffrey for “Salaam Namaste” and the award for best story to filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor for “Iqbal”, a sensitive portrayal of a deaf-mute villager’s quest to make it big in cricket.
The film “Bunty Aur Babli” also did well at the awards night, bagging honors for best playback singer (Female) for Alisha Chinai and best lyricist for the well-known artiste Gulzar. Composer-turned-singer Himesh Reshammiya took home the best playback singer (Male) trophy for chartbuster “Aashiq Banaya Aapne” from the movie of the same name.
The IIFA Lifetime Achievement awards went to veteran actress Asha Parek and filmmaker O P Dutta, with Hollywood-based Indian producer Ashok Amritraj receiving a special honor for his contribution toward promoting Indian cinema abroad.
Among the highlights of the star-studded evening were live performances by several Bollywood stars including Preity Zinta and Hrithik Roshan. The IIFA’s awards festival, which has become India’s equivalent to the Oscars, brought to Dubai a number of colorful Indian shows to entertain thousands of Bollywood fans.
Meanwhile, the IIFA Foundation Fashion Extravaganza, hosted as part of the IIFA Weekend in Dubai, raise $75,000 for the IIFA Foundation, which supports families of behind-the-scenes industry workers who have been injured or killed during the making of films. The black-tie extravaganza at the Dubai World Trade Center, hosted by Indian stars Dia Mirza and Suneil Shetty, also unveiled designer collections from Indian designers Manish Malhotra and Vikram Phadnis. The collections were modeled by a constellation of Indian models and film stars including Feroz Khan, Sharmukh Dawar and Aisha Takia.
