Bollywood celebrates the best

NIANNE-LYNN HENDRICKS

Priyanka Chopra performs at the Iifa awards on Sunday night, at Siam Niramit.

The song and dance extravaganza that accompanied the awards ceremony ended the Bollywood star-studded, three-day fest in Bangkok.

Chak De, which stars Shahrukh Khan, took nine awards at the ceremony, with King Khan himself winning best actor. Khan was unable to attend the ceremony, and his award was collected by veteran director Yash Chopra. However, the night did not end there for Khan as his home production Om Shanti Om took home five prizes, sweeping away the technical awards.

Chak De, which won best film, is a true story of a coach who inspires the national women's hockey team to victory.

Deepika Padukone (left) and actor Ranbir Kapoor pose with their awards for best female and male debut of the year respectively.

Best female performance in a leading role went to Kareena Kapoor for the romantic comedy Jab We Met, while Irfan Khan won the male supporting role award for Life in a Metro, for which Konkona Sen Sharma took the supporting actress award.

The glittering awards, which ended at 2:30am on Monday, were hosted by comedians Ritesh Deshmukh and Boman Irani. Both Deshmukh and Irani kept the audience enthralled with jokes and movie spoofs. The third host, actress Urmilla Matondkar, was less impressive.

Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor poses with her award for best female performance in a leading role, for the film `Jab We Met', during the 9th International Indian Film Academy (Iifa) awards in Bangkok, on Sunday.

Indian musician A.R. Rahman poses with his awards for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema and for best music direction for the song `Barso Re', from the film `Guru'.

A. R. Rahman took the best music direction award for Guru, which stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Rahman, who has taken Bollywood music right to Broadway with Bombay Dreams, also won the award for outstanding Indian in international cinema.

Vivek Oberoi took the award for actor in a negative role for Shootout at Lokhandwala, while Govinda took the Iifa for actor in a comic role for the movie Partner.

Noted actress Mumtaz and veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal were honoured for their outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.

The award ceremony was further glamourised by performances from Govinda, Katrina Kaif, the casts of Acid Factory, De Taali, Love Story 2050 and Mission Istanbul, which hits cinemas on July 11. A showstopping performance was given by Akshay Kumar, who made a dramatic stage entrance from a corner of the auditorium. His performance of Singh is King got people moving and shaking in their seats, as the song appealed to the mass Bangkok audience. Having spent three years as a chef in Bangkok before he became an actor, Kumar was given a special achievement award from host country, Thailand.

And, keeping in touch with current global concerns, the "green" Iifa awards made sure that the topic of the hour was not forgotten. As Amitabh Bachchan said in short film on global warming, "Wake up and smell the CO2."