IIFA Awards – 2007 Winners
As expected, the big winner at the 8th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards held Saturday night at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield, United Kingdom, was Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s political musical Rang De Basanti / Paint It Yellow, the tale of several alienated university students — among them Aamir Khan — who develop a sense of sociopolitical awareness after getting involved with a filmmaker (played by Alice Patten, daughter of Chris Patten, the UK’s
last governor of Hong Kong) attempting to make a movie about Indian nationalists who rose up against British rule.
In addition to being named best film, Rang De Basanti won three other awards out of 15 nominations in the Popular Categories (voted by film fans online from a list of nominees selected by the Indian Film Academy): best screenplay (Mehra and Renzil D’Silva), best supporting actress (Soha Ali Khan), and best musical direction (A.R. Rehman).
Mehra’s blockbuster ended up with more wins than any other film. In addition to its four Popular victories, Rang De Basanti garnered 7 other awards in the Technical Categories (chosen by Indian Film Academy members). Even so, the film failed to sweep the Popular awards as I’d expected it to.
The best director trophy, for instance, went to Rajkumar Hirani for the musical romantic comedy Lage Raho Munnabhai, which also won awards for best story and best dialogue, while Rang De Basanti’s Aamir Khan lost the best actor award to Hrithik Roshan for his portrayal of a man with super-powers in Krrish / There’s No One Like You.
Other top winners were best actress Rani Mukherji (above) for her performance in the drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna / Never Say Goodbye, best supporting actor Arshad Warsi for Lage Raho Munnabhai, and veteran director-producer-screenwriter Basu Chatterjee, who was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Unlike other film academies, the IIFA give out several awards that, depending on one’s mood, could be considered either quirky or tacky — possibly both. For instance, there’s a Best Actor in a Comic Role category (the winner was Tusshar Kapoor, who plays a dolt in Golmaal), Best Actor in a Negative Role (or, in MTV speech, Best Villain — Saif Ali Khan, above, sans glasses, as a revamped Iago in Vishal Bharadwaj’s adaptation of Othello set in the world of Indian politics, Omkara), and best male/female playback singers. (Shaan was the male choice for his singing in Fanaa; Sunidhi Chauhan was the female choice for her singing in Omkara.)
Quirkier (or tackier) yet, the IIFA allows fans to vote on the "Most Glamorous Stars." Unsurprisingly, the winners this year were beauty-of-beauties Aishwarya Rai and hunk-of-hunks Hrithik Roshan.
On a more serious note, director Deepa Mehta was honored with a special award for her international contribution to Indian filmmaking. Mehta’s win is a curious — and welcome — recognition for the director’s efforts. Her 2005 Indian-Canadian drama Water caused a furor among Fundamentalist Hindus, who destroyed the film’s Indian sets and threatened to kill the director. Production had to be scrapped, being later resumed in Sri Lanka. Water — the last installment of a controversial trilogy — went on to win three Canadian Genie Awards and to receive a best foreign-language film Oscar nomination.
According to reports, about 10,000 fans gathered at the Hallam FM to watch some of Bollywood’s biggest stars walk on the green carpet — a reminder of global warming. But with Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, and Preity Zinta parading around, it’s doubtful that onlookers paid much attention to either the color of the carpet or the looming global eco-disaster. (The British media, as provincial as any other, focused on the presence of UK Big Brother participant Shilpa Shetty, who received a special award from local authorities for her poise in the show during which Shetty was the target of ethnic slurs.)
Thousands of other fans reportedly watched the proceedings on big screens in Leeds, Bradford, and Rotherham. As per the BBC, about 10% of the income for Bollywood films come from outside South Asia, with the UK as the second-biggest market for Indian films. Sheffield county has the third-largest population of British Asians in the country, and tourist officials were hoping the awards would bring £10m to the area.
Amitabh Bachchan — who performed a much-applauded dance duet onstage with son Abhishek — failed to win a best supporting actor award (and so did Abhishek), but he won’t be returning to India empty-handed. Bachchan and fellow film veterans Yash Chopra and Shabana Azmi were awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Leeds Metropolitan University earlier in the weekend. As per a Gulf News report, the Leeds university "has recently forged close links with India and the International Indian Film Academy … and has several students from India." (I’m assuming they’re hoping to attract more Indian students in the future.)
And finally … Swanky dance numbers or no, the evening’s emotional highlight was apparently the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to veteran actor Dharmendra, who received a standing ovation from the audience.
"Very few people know that it was on Dharmendra’s insistence that I got the role of Jay in Sholay [1975]," presenter Amitabh Bachchan said. "If it were not for him, I would never have been a part of this great film. My wife describes him as a Greek God, but for me, he has always been a very good human being."
"I was a small-town boy in Phagwara and I used to look at this magical world of cinema and wonder if I would ever be a part of it," the 71-year-old honoree remarked. "From those days to this stage, it has been a very eventful journey." Since his 1960 debut, Dharmendra has appeared in nearly 250 motion pictures. In his upcoming film, Apne, he will appear for the first time with both his sons, Bobby and Sunny Deol.
Clearly, Hollywood and its Oscars don’t have a monopoly when it comes to both inspiring and fulfilling dreams of cinematic success.
IIFA Awards – 2007 Nominations – Article
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2006 IIFA winners and nominees
2005 IIFA winners and nominees
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3 Responses to “IIFA Awards – 2007 Winners”
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FYI: The picture used for Omkara- Saif Ali Khan is the one withOUT glasses and Ajay Devgan is the actor wearing sunglasses.
Yasmeen,
Thank you for the correction. I’m not familiar with either actor, and I had misread the photo caption.
The text has been appended.
AB rocks, even Big B is getting good rolls now-a-days.
It is sad to see that Dharmendra is getting life time award so late.