Source: Screen India
Date: Jan 01, 2010
One of the most talked-about event in 2009, the Nokia 15th Annual STAR Screen Awards was high on glamour, star power and spice. The Who's Who of Bollywood graced the event and made the evening memorable. From the Roshan family, complete with Rakesh, Hrithik and Suzanne to the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and ma-in-law Jaya Bachchan, Khiladi Akshay Kumar with wife Twinkle, Farhan Akhtar and his better half Adhuna and Arjun Rampal with wife Mehr Jessia, the night sparkled with superstars. The glamour quotient was upped by Priyanka Chopra who turned out in a sexy red gown and Kangna Ranaut draped in a sheer white sari. Of course, the other pretty actresses Mugdha Godse, Gul Panag, Tanushree Dutta, Koena Mitra, Celina Jaitly and Amrita Rao added to the appeal.
As the awards were announced, there were many triumphant cries and some sighs of disappointments among the audience. Jodhaa Akbar, the historical romance notched up six trophies as did Rock On!!. Close on the heels were the gritty A Wednesday! and the light-hearted romantic flick Bachna Ae Haseeno with four each. What stood out that evening was that both big and small-budget films, formulaeic as well as experimental films were being feted on the same dias.
The Jodhaa Akbar team cheered everytime one of them won an award. And when their hero Hrithik Roshan walked up to the stage to receive the Best Actor (Male) Award, there was a huge applause as everyone unanimously felt that Hrithik's emperor act was indeed the best. Ashutosh Gowariker, who was a little miffed with the goings-on and had voiced his displeasure to host Sajid Khan, was happy to recieve the award for Best Director.
The Rock On!! team, which was present in full force from Farhan to Purab Kohli were esctatic to hear the title-track being played out often when they went on stage to receive the coveted trophy. While Farhan bagged the Most Promising Newcomer award, the good-looking Arjun Rampal and his co-star Shahana Goswami won the Best Supporting Actor, Male and Female, awards respectively.
The low-profile Neeraj Pandey found himself walking up to the stage as many as four times, pocketing the trophies for Best Director, Most Promising Debut Director, Best Story and the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award.
Asin, who made her Hindi film debut with Ghajini bagged the award for Most Promising Newcomer (Female). But it was the Jodi No.1 Award to John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan that got the audience in a tizzy. Though Abhishek was missing, John made up for his absence looking dapper in a dark suit and receiving the award from his girlfriend Bipasha Basu and Abhishek's better-half Aishwarya. Host Sajid Khan, who was dressed in a pink gown having done a spoof on Fashion, playfully made advances on John and was rescued by Bipasha!
It was an emotional moment when Sanjay Khan was felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement Award by Jeetendra in front of his entire family including wife Zarine, son Zayed Khan and daughter Suzanne.
Screen introduced the Popular Choice Awards this year, which were bagged by Akshay Kumar for Singh Is Kinng and Aishwarya for Jodhaa Akbar. In a surprising twist, Akshay extended the honour to Aamir Khan for his "dedication to Ghajini".
Any awards event is incomplete without the dazzling performances of our favourite stars. Deepika Padukone stepped out of her giant six-tiered cake replica and danced to the songs from Bachna Ae Haseeno and her first film Om Shanti Om. The year's debutant Anushka Sharma put in a lively performance on her song Dance pe chance from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Katrina Kaif grooved to her songs from Race and Singh Is Kinng. Arjun Rampal rocked to the Rock On!! title-track and had Hrithik and Akshay matching steps with him besides the gorgeous girls Deepika and Katrina Kaif. But the showstopper was desi girl Priyanka Chopra, who not only danced to the hit number from Dostana but also walked away with the Best Actor (Female) award for her performance in Fashion.