Golden Globes to have 'Best Bollywood Film' category

The Indo-Americans asked Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to introduce a new award category in Golden Globe Awards which will start in 2011 of "Best Bollywood Film" for films made in India.

India has the largest film industry in the world and thus the country deserves at least one category in Golden Globes where it's films could compete among themselves. This kind of gesture would bring more credibility to Golden Globes in the international arena too.

Rajan Zed, the Chairman of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, while talking about this move by Golden Globes said that cinema in India, based in Mumbai and various other regional centers, produced much more movies and drew much larger audience globally than Hollywood. Rajan Zed also accepted that the Best Foreign Language Film Award at Golden Globes didn't do any justice to such a large industry.

The Golden Globes recognize achievements in 25 categories. There will be 14 in motion pictures and 11 in television. The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be organized at Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills California, USA on January 17, 2010.

Tamanna was nominated for V Shantaram Awards

Film actress Tamanna has been nominated for the Best Actress for the prestigious V Shantaram Awards 2009 for the Telugu film "Koncham Ishtam Koncham Kashtam". This award enables the entire Indian cinema with a cross-section of languages to compete on a single platform.

The Rajkamal Academy of Cinematic Excellence (RACE), which has been annually presenting the awards for the last fifteen years after legendary filmmaker V. Shantaram who made movies like like Duniya Na Mane (1937), Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946), Amar Bhoopali (1951), Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje (1955), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) Navrang (1959) and many more.

V Shantatram won the Filmfare Best Director Award for Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje and National Film Award for Best Film for Do Aankhen Barah Haath. Shantatram was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985, the Indian film industry’s highest award and the GoI’s Padma Vibhushan in 1992.

Indian Music Awards

In the first quarter of 2010 there will be a lot of excitement for the Indian music industry as three music awards will be scheduled in Mumbai. The 'Mirchi Music Awards', 'Indian Music Academy Awards' and 'Indian Music Awards' have all announced they will honour talent in various genres of Indian music.

The Indian Music Awards that were started by a group of four media professionals have received positive feedback for their step after they announced the awards at the Goa Film Festival.

Pranayy J Anthwal, Indian Music Awards director feels for any initiative step such as Indian Music Awards there is a genuine and important need for strong partnerships with both brand sponsors as well as other stakeholders of the music industry.

Stars felicitated with V Shantaram awards

At the 50th Anniversary of V Shantaram's classic Navrang, several stars were felicitated with the V Shantaram annual film awards. Shahrukh Khan for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Saif Ali Khan for Love Aaj Kal, John Abraham for New York, Mohanlal for Bhramaram, Prakash Raj for Kanchivaram and Upendra Limaye for Jogva, Marathi were nominated for best actor category. Whereas, Rani Mukherjee won the Best Actress V Shantaram award for her film Dil Bole Haddipa.

The V Shantaram Awards are basically instituted in honor of the legendary "Dr. V. Shantaram" to award cinematic excellence by V Shantaram Foundation.
Sandhya, the legendary actress who acted as the lead heroine of V Shantaram's classics including Navrang, Do Ankhen Barah Hath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje, was also honoured at the function.

Bollywood producer and director Yash Chopra alongwith Kiran Shantaram graced the V Shantaram Awards 2009 ceremony here in Mumbai. Kanchivaram that depicted the story of a silk weaver, received the best film Gold award and Priyadarshan bagged the Best director Gold prize for the same flick. Altogether it was a great eve to be remebered!!! Know more about Rani Mukherjee's horoscope.

PETA awards

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It was PETA's 10th anniversary bash where the celebrities from the tinsel town had gathered to be honoured with humanitarian awards. It was held at the Trident Hotel at Bandra kurla Complex, in Mumbai.

It was a great time for Shahid Kapoor as he was honoured with the PETA Asia Sexiest Vegetarian Award. Receiving the award, actress Celine Jaitley said, "Animals are my first love, getting PETA's award motivates me to do more work for animals."

Raveena Tandon feels great after being honoured. She says, "Animals need us to speak for them. Let's stop the cruelty and let us make a difference."

John Abraham hosted the event. He was the one who had campaigned for PETA for caged birds. He however could not be contacted for comment.

'Best Bollywood Film' category at Golden Globes

News is that a 'Best Bollywood Film' category needs to be introduced at the International awards ceremony the Golden Globes. Through the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hundreds of Indo-Americans have called on to instate the new category for the 2011 awards.

According to Rajan Zed, chairperson of the Indo-American Leadership Confederation, India has the largest film industry in the world. Therefore he believes that there should be at least one category where Indian movies could compete among themselves.

Currently the Golden Globes recognizes achievements in 25 categories, 14 in motion pictures and 11 in television. On television it is one of the three most watched awards shows.

Indian Music awards

Very soon India too will have its own music awards which will be on the lines of the Grammys. The news is that Hub Entertainment has been formed to host the Indian Music Awards, as initiated by four men-Pranay Anthwal ,Jatish Varma, Sameer Dixit and UK-based Shokat Babul.

Apart from bollywood film music, the awards will recognize several categories and all genres. It will range from Sufi, Carnatic, folk music to Rabindra Sangeet.

"Music is only a part of any film award - say a category among many others." Also Anthwal said, "We have met several organizations who have been working in a particular genre for years together and with their help we will set up the categories and nominations."

Pravasi Film Festival 2010 to kick off in New Delhi

New Delhi, the capital will be hosting the Pravasi Film Festival 2010, which is decided to kick off on January 3, 2010. For the first time movies, which have been produced by Indians living outside India, would be showcased in this respective fest.

Mauritius President Anerood Jugnauth would unveil the awards. This award fest had being organised by the international bi-lingual monthly Pravasi Today in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre (IHC) with the support of the Mauritius High Commission in India.

Some of the movies which would be showcased at the event include ‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘New York’, ‘99’, ‘The President Is Coming’ and ’Inner World of Shah Rukh Khan’. Flicks made by Yash Chopra and Sippy Productions were also salted for screening during the fest at IHC.

Cinema personalities like Saeed Jaffrey, Manoj Bajpai, Rahul Rawail, Prakash Jha, Karan Razdan and Satish Kaushik are expected to attend the four-day event.

The curtains for the film festival will fall on January 6, 2010.

IIFA 2011 will be held in Canada

The 12th Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) will be held in Ontario, Canada, in 2011. The organisers will be announcing the venue for the this awards in 2010.

Earlier IIFA has earlier travelled to Britain, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and Thailand. Toronto would be the first North American city to host the IIFA Awards. Bollywood megastar the legend of Indian cinema Amitabh Bachchan, who is the brand ambassador of IIFA, could not attend the event as he had to be present at the Dubai International Film Festival to receive an honour.

Amitabh Bachchan stated that "IIFA has moved forward and has over the time brought people from different cultures and races together on a global stage. It bridges countries, nations, businesses, communities and cinemas and this is our wish too for IIFA, Toronto 2011. As the IIFA brand ambassador, I pledge my complete support to the IIFA celebration and do look for a greener IIFA 2011."

Asian Film Cultural award for Big B

Opens up 8th Third Eye Asian Film Festival which will begin from December 4, and at the festival megastar Amitabh Bachchan will be felicitated with the Asian Film Cultural award for successful completion of 40 years in the entertainment industry.

The aim of this seven day festival in Mumbai is to promote Asian cinema and the coming together of Asian film fraternities. Around 100 feature and short films from 24 countries will be screened at the festival. Also there will be a Debut Film Directors competition section with 15 films from first-time Asian film makers. In the Short Films sections 44 films will be competing with each other.

The festival will begin with the Oscar-nominated film Harishchandrachi Factory.

AR Rahman nominated for 2 Grammy awards

Music king AR Rahman has been nominated for two Grammy awards for the film "Slumdog Millionaire". AR Rahman who is also called as the 'Mozart Of Madras', has been nominated in the best soundtrack for motion pictures, TV or other visual media category for the film, and in the best song for motion picture, television and other visual media category for "Jai ho".

The song 'Jai ho...' written by lyricist Gulzar has been sung by none other than singers like Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Vijay Prakash and Rahman himself.

Being nominated for the first time at the Grammy's, AR Rahman won two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire and was also honoured with the best original score award at the 2009 Golden Globe Award. The 52th edition of the Annual Grammy Awards will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on 31 January next year.

IFFK opens at 11 December

International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is all set to open on December 11. At the event, filmmaker Mrinal Sen will be the first recipient of the lifetime achievement award.



According to Culture Minister M.A.Baby, "The award carries a cash prize of Rs.3 lakh and Mrinal Sen was selected for the award by a jury chaired by Malayalam actor Madhu." Around 164 films from various countries would be exhibited in 11 categories. It would be an eight day event organized by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.

As added by Baby, "There would be 14 films in competition, including two Malayalam films. The best film award will have a prize of Rs.10 lakh (Rs.1 million)."

Apsara awards in December

Apsara Film and Television Producers Guild Awards have been scheduled this December, 2009 in the city of Mumbai. This year both the fourth and the fifth edition will be held. The awards are meant to honour excellence in cinema and television.

Last year the fourth edition was postponed to mark respect for the victims of the 26/11 tragedy. The awards are distributed by Producers' Guild of India. Guild Jury which chooses the winners includes Ravi Chopra, Ketan Desai, and Vashu Bhagnani.

According to Manmohan Shetty, President of the Guild, the awards honour achievers within the fraternity and it is an initiative from the fraternity itself. The event is promoted by Wizcraft Entertainment.

The Golden Elephant’ awards

International Children’s Film Festival of India known as ‘The Golden Elephant -16’ was held in Hyderabad from Children’s Day i.e. November 14th to 20th, 2009. For the ‘The Golden Elephant’ awards around 60 films including that of 6 UNESCO-certified films competed this year.

The awards were in categories like Children’s World, Asian Panorama and International Competition. The festival has been jointly organized by Children’s Film Society, India and the Central & State Governments.

Chief Guest in the opening ceremony of festival was Chief Minister K Rosaiah. Also many foreign delegates attended the festival. Chairperson of this event was noted bollywood actress Nandita Das.

Nominations for APSA

Four Indian films have been nominated in different categories for Asia Pacific Screen Awards to be held on 26 November at Australia's Gold Coast. The four films are Dev D, A Wednesday, Tahaan and Mumbai Meri Jaan.



Director of movie Dev D, Anurag Kashyap has been nominated in the best director category for his take on Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Devdas. For the screenplay of Mumbai Meri Jaan, Yogesh Vinayak Joshi and Upendra Sidhaye have been nominated. Tahaan is nominated in the Best Children's Film: Shripal Morakhia and Mubina Rattonsey category. The actor Naseeruddin Shah is nominated for the best actor award for his film A Wednesday.

APSA is collaboration between CNN International, UNESCO and FIAPF International Federation of Film Producers Associations. It has announced nominees in nine award categories with 37 films from 16 countries - Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Palestine, China, South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey.

A.R. Rahman wins at World Soundtrack Awards of 2009

With the bag full of Oscar, Padma Shri, four national film awards, four IIFA awards, 12 screen awards, 21 Filmfare awards, and six Zee awards, music director A.R. Rahman has brought to India this time an international award. He has been chosen for World Soundtrack Awards of 2009. He has won the award in the ‘Best Original Song Written for a Film’ category for the song ‘Jai Ho’ from the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

He was also nominated for the ‘Best Original Film Score’ but the award was won by Alexandre Desplat. Alexandre Desplat has also won the ‘Film Composer of the Year’ award for his work in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.

The ceremony was held on October 17, the last day of the Ghent Film Festival, in the Belgian port town of Ghent. ‘Lifetime Achievement award’ was won by Three time Oscar winner Marvin Hamslich.

'The Fun, Fearless, Female' awards

One of the most famous magazine known as Cosmopolitan celebrated the success of some of known celebrities in the country. The awards known as 'The Fun, Fearless, and Female’ were given to some of the renowned names on 20 November, 2009.

Actresses Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor were rewarded for their contribution towards Indian cinema. They have set an example for upcoming stars of Bollywood.

Actors Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol were awarded as the upcoming talents of the year. Also Badshah Shah Rukh Khan won the Fun Fearless female all time favourite star of the year.

The magazine covers a range of subjects such as fashion and style, beauty, life, men, love and sex etc.

Lifetime achievement honour for Gulzar

Noted lyricist Gulzar was bestowed with the lifetime achievement honour at a function in Mumbai. Also actress Priyanka Chopra and actor Shahid Kapoor won the Teacher's Achievement Awards.




Priyanka Chopra bagged the award in the entertainment category. She said, “I am thankful to the jury. Whenever I get a prize, I think this would not have been possible without the constant support of my parents.” She dedicated her award to her mother.

Shahid bagged the Teacher's People Magazine Achiever award. He told IANS, “I feel special. It's really a big achievement when such an eminent set of jury has decided to give me the award.”

Said the award presenter, “We are hopeful that each edition of the Teacher's Achievement Awards shall inspire and encourage people from all walks of life to strive for accomplishment that not just add to individual glory but also propel societal growth and well-being.”

Suniel Shetty wins

Away from the mainstream, recently bollywood actor Suniel Shetty won the prestigious award of ‘Best Actor’ for his upcoming ‘Red Alert’ at South Asian International Film Festival. The festival which was held in New York started on 28 Oct and closed on 3 November.

It was memorable event for the actor as he has won only one award in 17 years of his career in the world of Bollywood. Even the filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan was very happy with the news of actor winning the award. Says Ananth: “When I approached Suniel Shetty for ‘Red Alert’, he requested me not to make a film with him alone in the lead role as it wouldn’t yield positive results. But I was keen on casting him in my film’s lead role and we have finally achieved it.”

Says Suniel, “Winning an award at such a big film festival is a big high for me as an actor. Now I really want to do good films and work harder and better.” His upcoming film is ‘De Dana Dan’, which is set to release on Nov 27.

National Film Awards for 2007

55th National Film Awards for 2007 were held on October 21, 2009 and the awards were presented by President Pratibha Patil. Biggest names from the Indian cinema presented the trophies for their renowned works.




This year Dada Saheb Phalke Award was conferred upon eminent play back singer Manna Dey. Also veteran director Adoor Gopalakrishnan and actress Uma Shree collected their trophies as National Award winners for 2007.

According to an official release Best Feature Film award was presented to Tamil film 'Kanchivaram' and 'Chak De India' received the award in Wholesome Entertainment Category.

These awards aimed to appreciate excellence and promote unity of the nation. The awards were given in feature film as well as non feature film section. In the feature film section, the awards were given in 31 categories, which included Award for Best Feature Film, Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a director, Award For Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, Award For Best Direction, Actor, Actress, Editing, Lyrics and Choreography. In the non-feature film section, awards were given in 22 categories like Best Non-Feature Film, Best Biographical/Historical Reconstruction/Compilation Film, Special Jury Award and Best Audiography.

International Film Festival of India 2009

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 will take off from 23 November and will screen around 200 films from India and abroad.

The IFFI will have a best director and best film award this year, as announced by the Festival director S.M.Khan. The director and the producer of the film both will share the best film award. The winner gets the Golden Peacock award and Rs.40 lakh cash prize. And the best director and winner of the Special Jury Award gets silver peacock and cash prizes of Rs.15 lakh each. So as to promote short films IFFI has initiated awards 'Vasundhara' which is the award for best green documentary and the documentary competition.




It is the most sponsored film festival in the country and it is expected that its 40th edition will bring participation of around 50 countries. Academy award winner Ben Kingsley will be the guest of honour this year.

11th Mumbai Film Festival ended with a bang

Amitabh Bachchan was honoured with a lifetime achievement at MAMI closing ceremony. The festival closed on the 11th edition of Mumbai Film Festival organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) at Mumbai.

MAMI committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mrs. Jaya Bachchan, Mr. Amit Khanna, Mr. Amol Palekar along with the festival jury Members who graced the event were Hollywood screenwriter and director Mr. Paul Schrader, Sri Lankan filmmaker Mr. Vimukthi Jayasundara, Philippine filmmaker Mr. Brillante Mendoza, Indian filmmaker Mr. Shaji N. Karun and former Director of Locarno Film Festival Ms. Irene Bignardi.

Anil and Tina Ambani, Mr Amitabh Bachchan, Mr and Mrs Theo Angelopoulos were also present at the ceremony. Shyam Benegal, chairperson of MAMI said, "We watched some very well-crafted films covering a range of thematics and issues. This Festival brought together some of the best cinematic talent from across the globe."

Theo Angelopoulos, the maestro from Greece received the International Lifetime Achievement award. Mr. Dev Anand's production house Navketan Films was honoured for completing 60 golden years in the film industry.

Filmfare Best Director Award Filmfare Best Director Award

Cover of Ghayal

The reins of a movie is in hands of director, therefore for their recognition in the Hindi film industry every Filmfare Best Director Award is presented. It was first presented in the year 1954.

Bimal Roy who has directed films such as ‘Do Bigha Zameen’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Biraj Bahu’ has won the maximum number of Best Director Filmfare awards. He has won in total seven awards which resulted from exactly seven nominations. Following him were directors Raj Kapoor and Yash Chopra who have won 4 awards. Director Mahesh Bhatt has been nominated six times but could not win the award.

Among the female directors, Sai Paranjpye is the only women who have won the Best Director award for her movie 'Sparsh'. Other women directors who have been nominated for the awards are Mira Nair and Farah Khan.

Let’s have a look at Filmfare Best directors Award from 1990s-

1990 Vidhu Vinod Chopra - Parinda

1991 Rajkumar Santoshi - Ghayal

1992 Subhash Ghai - Saudagar

1993 Mukul S. Anand - Khuda Gawah

1994 Rajkumar Santoshi - Damini

1995 Sooraj Barjatya - Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!

1996 Aditya Chopra - Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

1997 Shekhar Kapur - Bandit Queen

1998 J.P. Dutta - Border

1999 Karan Johar - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

2000 Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam

2001 Rakesh Roshan - Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai

2002 Ashutosh Gowariker - Lagaan

2003 Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Devdas

2004 Rakesh Roshan - Koi... Mil Gaya

2005 Kunal Kohli - Hum Tum

2006 Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Black

2007 Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra - Rang De Basanti

2008 Aamir Khan - Taare Zameen Par

2009 Ashutosh Gowariker - Jodhaa Akbar

11th Osian Cinefan Film Fest

Indian movie 'Khargosh' won three awards at the grande finale of 11th Osian Cinefan Film Fest held in the capital of New Delhi. The movie directed by Paresh Kamdar won awards in category of Special Mention, Audience Award and for combining the real and the imaginary world and its lyrical beauty of images.




The Best Film Award was won by Syrian movie 'The Long Night', which also won the award for combining the real and the imaginary world and its lyrical beauty of images. In the short film category, the Iranian movie, 'The First Film', directed by Panah Panahi, won the best award. Indian movie, 'Vitthal', directed by Vinoo Choliparambil also won the Special Mention award in the short film category.

Behnam Behzadi's 'Before the Burial' won the best actor and actress awards for Alireza Aqakhani and Negar Javaherian respectively.

This year the festival screened about 100 feature-length and short from Asian and Arab countries.

Filmfare Best Comedian Awards

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Bollywood comedians have memorable place in the Hindi films. In the contemporary film industry the films of comic genre attracts audience in large numbers. To make anybody laugh is the biggest challenge. Bollywood comedians like Mehmood in every way was the king of comedy in the 1960s. His first major break came with the film Parvarish in 1958.

Actors like Kishore Kumar, Utpal Dutt and Deven Verma have successfully made the audience laugh with their gimmicks. Kadar Khan and Johnny Lever rocked the silver screen by entertaining people. Not only this, our Indian cinema has also witnessed actresses like Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Karisma Kapoor, Rani Mukherji, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Tabu and many others performing comic roles in many films.

Let's have a short glimpse at the Filmfare Best Comedian Award from late 90's to early 2007-


2007 Arshad Warsi Lage Raho Munnabhai
2006 Akshay Kumar Garam Masala
2005 Saif Ali Khan Hum Tum
2004 Sanjay Dutt Munnabhai MBBS
2003 Paresh Rawal Awara Paagal Deewana
2002 Saif Ali Khan Dil Chahta Hai
2001 Paresh Rawal Hera Pheri
2000 Govinda Haseena Maan Jaayegi
1999 Johnny Lever Dulhe Raja
1998 Johnny Lever Deewane Mastana
1997 Satish Kaushik Saajan Chale Sasural
1996 Anupam Kher Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge
1995 Shakti Kapoor Raju Babu
1994 Anupam Kher Darr
1993 Anupam Kher Khel
1992 Anupam Kher Lamhe
1991 Kader Khan Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri
1990 Anupam Kher and Satish Kaushik Ram Lakhan