Source: Star Box Office Date: January 21, 2009 It's a well said line ‘Behind every successful man, there is a woman’. For Hrithik Roshan, who won the Star Screen Best Actor award for his brilliant performance in Jodhaa Akbar, his wife Suzanne was responsible in helping him win it. He said, "Jodhaa Akbar is a special film for me because it offered me a challenging role. I was nervous after signing for the film hoping I will be able to do it the role justice.” He went on to say, “After signing the film I discussed my apprehension with my wife. She however, was very encouraging and confident that my performance would definitely allow me bring home the Best Actor Award. This is why I’m dedicating this trophy to you, Suzanne and also to my mother who has been a great source of support in my life.” He also thanked director, Ashutosh Gowarikar for being supportive and believing in his potential. “Since the first day of my shoot, he treated me like his son, a friend and a brother. He managed to convince me that the role of Akbar was meant for me.” For Hrithik, the experience of working with the Jodhaa Akbar team was the best he has had so far. “I have never worked in such co-ordination. The experience was extremely enjoyable,” he concluded.
----Source: Express India Date: January 21, 2009 The red carpet at the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards saw plenty of glamour So next time, don’t be surprised if you see an elegant gown worn by Angelina Jolie, sashaying down the red carpet in Mumbai with Suzanne Roshan in it. Black, the global red-carpet staple, of course dominated the event. But the ladies who wore the somber shade livened up their outfits with some unusual cuts and embellishments. A special mention should go to Barbara Mori, set to debut opposite Hrithik Roshan in Kites, who turned up wearing a daringly plunging neckline that didn’t compromise on elegance. It takes a woman of confidence to carry off prints on a formal gown and nobody does confident style the way the two most high-profile star wives, Twinkle Khanna and Suzanne Roshan, do. While Twinkle kept it subtle with a tie and dye Laundry by Design gown, Suzanne opted for a Pucci gown with bold multicoloured geometric patterns.
----Source: Screen India By: Vandita Mishra, Pooja Pillai Date: January 15, 2009 The readers of Screen chose Akshay Kumar, but Akki chose Aamir Khan. The readers chose Aishwarya Rai, but Ash chose the entire crew of Jodhaa Akbar. The presentation of the Best Actor in Popular Category (Male and Female) Awards — selected through a system of SMS and email voting by Screen readers — produced heart-warming displays of genuine humility in starry Bollywood on Wednesday evening. “According to me, the best actor is Aamir Khan for Ghajini. This is for you Aamir, from me and the people,” Akshay Kumar said in a passionate and touchingly modest speech after being chosen for the Best Actor in Popular Category (Male) Award for Singh is Kinng at the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards. Akshay left the Award statuette on the podium. Aishwarya Rai, winner of the Best Actor in Popular Category (Female) Award, said she would accept, but only on behalf of the entire crew of Jodhaa Akbar. On a sultry evening, populated by innumerable stars in the sky and on the ground at Mumbai’s sprawling MMRDA Grounds, Priyanka Chopra received the Award for Best Actor (Female) for Fashion and Hrithik Roshan for Best Actor (Male) for Jodhaa Akbar. Jodhaa Akbar won Best Film, and its director Ashutosh Gowarikar shared Best Director with Neeraj Pandey for A Wednesday. A R Rahman won the Award for the Best Background Score (Jodhaa Akbar). Pandey also won Best Debut Director for A Wednesday, which won the Award for Best Story. In a celebration of the different in Bollywood, Rock On!! joined A Wednesday in a run on the awards, both films winning a fistful. Rock On!! won awards for editing, art direction and cinematography. Shahana Goswami and Arjun Rampal won Awards for the Best Supporting Actor (Female and Male), and Farhan Akhtar won Most Promising Newcomer (Male), all for Rock On!!. A Wednesday won the Ramnath Goenka Award which recognises movies that reflect the ideals of the Express Group. Asin Thottumkal won Most Promising Newcomer (Female) for Ghajini. The Khan siblings, Sajid and Farah, hosted the evening along with Shreyas Talpade, sprinkling the announcement of the Awards with spoofs on several talked-about releases of the year, particularly Karzzz, Dostana and Fashion. Deepika Padukone lit up the evening dancing to numbers from her films Bachna Ae Haseeno and Om Shanti Om, and performances by Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma set the night on fire. In the VVIP section sat Aishwarya Rai and Jaya Bachchan, who came with Amar Singh, Kumar Mangalam and Neerja Birla, Rekha, Twinkle Khanna, Tusshar Kapoor and Jeetendra, Abhishek Kapoor, Tarun Mansukhani and John Abraham. When the young man whose name was announced as winner of the best story award for A Wednesday took the stage, compere Farah Khan asked aloud, “Is that really Neeraj Pandey?” It was meant in all seriousness, something that could not be said of most of Farah and Sajid’s best lines from the glittering stage. Few, if anyone, at the MMRDA Grounds knew what Neeraj Pandey looked like. Not even Farah, who is no ordinary compere, and the only woman director to make it big commercially. The lean, bespectacled man, dressed inconspicuously in deep blue and black, allowed his film to do all the speaking for him. He went up on stage several times, but only offered “thanks” each time. It was that sort of an evening. The Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards toasted a year when the strange and wonderful transitions that picked up pace in Bollywood sometime around the turn of the new century — after the multiplex revolution of the late 1990s had had time to settle down and opened up space for stories with a difference told by bold new storytellers ¿ carried on. It was the year when the big films mostly went down ¿ with the exception of a notable few like Jodhaa Akbar, Rab Ne and Ghajini. And when the small films were the true winners. Between themselves, Jodhaa Akbar and A Wednesday notched 14 nominations each. The first, a grand historical that tenderly told the story of a romance that transcended the barriers of religion; the second a tight and edgy thriller, small and inexpensive, one that came out of the blue and presciently framed the growing sense of helplessness of the aam aadmi in times of terror. In 2008, a mainstream film playfully walked across the line and placed the relationship between two men squarely at its centre. At the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards this evening, Jodi of the Year award went to John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan. The fact that it was announced by Bipasha and Aishwarya did not at all take away from the newness of that freshly-minted Bollywood moment. Last year ended in anxiety, when ten men brought terrible terror to Mumbai, spreading a fear that threatened to choke the imagination, and the global downturn dampened enthusiasm. But fittingly, as the flames went up from the stage, as Priyanka Chopra danced to a medley from Fashion and then when Arjun Rampal gathered most of the stars on stage during his act from Rock On!!, there was no time to look back at the past, except to celebrate its best moments. WINNERS ALL Best Actor (Male): Hrithik Roshan (Jodhaa Akbar) Best Actor (Female): Priyanka Chopra (Fashion) Best Film: Jodhaa Akbar Ramnath Goenka Award: A Wednesday
----Source: HT Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra on Wednesday won the Star Screen Awards 2008 for the best male and female actors. Hrithik got the honour for his lead role in Jodhaa Akbar while Priyanka won it for her role in Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion. The period movie Jodhaa Akbar directed by Ashutosh Gowariker also won the best film award at a late evening function here.
----Source: Meri News Date: January 15, 2009 The awards had everything a masala Bollywood entertainer would have. Great performances, good choreography, incessant sometimes needless humour, verbal duels, ego clashes and a whole lot of surprise winners at the star studded event. . THE YEAR has barely begun and we have the first film awards awaiting us. The star screen awards are the first ones to arrive every year. It’s another thing to watch an edited awards show on television and another to watch it live with all the glitter, goof ups and the drama. Perhaps that’s the reason why several TV channels have stopped relaying the live telecast of the award shows. And so much so that the 15th annual star screen awards show will be telecast on Star Plus only on the 24th thus giving the editors ten days to chop the awards ceremony and give us the best shoot possible. The star screen annual awards were a star studded event with big names like Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and John Abaraham all making their presence felt. The noticeable absentees were the four khans of Bollywood. Aamir was never expected to be there. Salman had a horrible year at the box office and had no nomination to show for it. Saif chose to skip the show probably because Bebo had pulled out of the awards show and refused to dance on stage and Shahrukh Khan would have known that he was not in contention for the best actor award and hence justified his absence. The male Bachchans were missing despite being nominated in categories. The stage was set on fire with an opening performance by the gorgeous Deepika Padukone who danced on tunes from Bachna ae haseeno and songs from Om Shanti Om. The theme was dedicated to the girls of Bollywood and the other performances were by Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra and Arjun Rampal. Arjun Rampal did the climax act dancing with the remaining girls. Or was it an anti climax? Who really expected Arjun Rampal to do the final act? Couldn’t they get hold of Hrithik, Akshay or even Aishwarya. The show was hosted by Sajad Khan, Farah Khan and Shreyas Talpade who tried to put humour in every sentence. Sajid was more often rubbing people the wrong way and his funny sarcastic comments did not go too well with a lot of people and he had to pay for it at the end. Now, if you are going to be watching the telecast on TV then here is something that you won’t get to see. The Ashutosh Sajid verbal duel: Sajid’s tongue and cheek comments did not go down too well with Ashutosh Gowarikar, who while receiving his award for the best film made his feelings clear by saying that Sajid Khan had no right to demean or make fun of anyone and nor was the show made for him that most of the telecast time would be devoted to Sajid Khan and the winners were being asked to cut short their speeches. It only got worse when Amar Singh came and saluted Ashutosh Gowarikar for having the courage to stand up and speak his mind. Sajid Khan on the other hand defended himself by saying that the audience is the biggest factor and in order to increase the TRPs, they have to have a good time by making fun of people. Clearly some of Sajid Khan’s comments had not gone too well with the audience. Sajid’s comment on the shirt worn by Neeraj Pandey who won the best director and the best story award was in bad taste. Farah Khan further came and said that they treat the industry as a family and hence make fun of each other but have no intentions to hurt any one but will not apologise. The show hence ended at a bitter note. Akshay Kumar received the best actor in the popular category but returned it. Yes the same Akshay Kumar who is known to have edited the roles of other actors in films and is believed to be charging several crores for his films returned his best actor award for he felt that Aamir Khan had a brilliant performance in Ghajini and was more deserving of it. Akshay went on to add that he hoped some day he would win this award when he actually deserved it but Aamir’s performance in Ghajini was better than his performance. The popular category of awards was decided by the number of votes. Aishwarya Rai won it for her performance in Jodha Akbar. The fortunate ones will get to see Bipasha’s performance on television telecast for she arrived late for the show and hence her performance will be recorded after the awards and will be added in the television telecast. Believe it or not, there were several other gaffes and goof ups which happened on stage with people some times having to wait till eternity till the envelopes carrying the names of the winners reached them! All in all, the show was put together well by the creative team despite the goof ups and will be edited to perfection for the television viewers. Here are some of the popular category awards. Best female singer: Shilpa Rao (Khuda Jaane- Bachna ae haseeno) Best male singer: KK (Khuda Jaane- Bachna ae haseeno) Best special effects Bhootnath. Best Action: Race Best Background score: AR Rehman ( Jodha Akbar ) Best sound: Mumbai Meri Jaan. Best choreography: Raju Khan (Khwaaja mere khwaaja). Best editing: A Wednesday Best lyrics: Anvita Dutt (Khuda Jaane- Bachna ae haseeno) Best music: AR rehman (jaane tu ya jaane naa) Best story: Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday) Best screenplay: Shiraz Ahmad (Race). Best dialogue: Ashok Mitra (Welcome to Sajjanpur). Most promising female: Asin (Ghajini) Most promising male: Farhan Akhtar. (Rock on) Debut director: Neeraj Pandey. Best Animation film: Roadside Best English film: Last Lear Best child actor: Purab for Tahan. Ramnath Goenka award: A Wednesday. Lifetime achievement award: Sanjay khan Best supporting actress: Shahana Goswaami (Rock On) Best supporting actor: Arjun Rampal (Rock On) Best comedian: Tusshar Kapoor (Golmaal Returns) Best actor in a negative role: Akshaye Khanna (Race) Nokia 5800 express talent in music: Shilpa Rao. Best on screen Jodi: Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham. Best actor popular: Akshay Kumar (Singh is King) Best actress popular: Aishwarya Rai ( Jodha Akbar) Best Film: Jodha Akbar Best Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar and Neeraj Pandey Best Actress: Priyanka Chopra (Fashion) Best Actor: Hrithik Roshan (Jodha Akbar )