Jodha Akbar sweeps away IIFA 2009

Complete Slumdog style, Ashutosh Gowariker's historical romance "Jodhaa Akbar" swept the International Indian Film Acadmey (IIFA) awards 2009 here Saturday with a perfect 10 bag of trophies, being named the best film and fetching its male lead Hrithik Roshan the best actor award and Ashutosh Gowariker the best director award.
Priyanka Chopra was named the best actress for portrayal of a an ambitious model in " Fashion ".

Kangana Ranaut walked with the the award for the best female in a supporting role for her performance as a down-in-the-dumps model in " Fashion ", while Arjun Rampal won the award for best male actor in a supporting role trophy for playing an unsuccessful and brooding musician in " Rock On! "
Abhishek Bachchan got the best comic actor for his performance in " Dostana " and immediately dedicated it to wife Aishwarya Rai and Amar Singh ji...strange!

The award for best actor in a negative role went to Akshaye Khanna for " Race ". Anil Kapoor received the award as Akshay had to leave for some personal work. Neeraj Pandey was given IIFA best story award for his critically acclaimed " A Wednesday ".

" Lagaan " was declared the best movie of the decade, veteran Rajesh Khanna was given the lifetime achievement award, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai were respectively declared the male and female actors of the decade, Rakesh Roshan was named director of the decade and double Oscar-winning A.R. Rahman was honoured with the composer of the decade
award.

This set of honours were meant to commemorate 10 years of IIFA awards.

Rahman was also named the best music director for his soulful compositions in " Jodhaa Akbar ". The music maestro couldn't attend the event and Gowariker received the award on his behalf.

The best male playback singer award went to Javed Ali for crooning " Jashn-e-bahaara " in " Jodhaa Akbar ", while Shreya Ghoshal was named the best female playback singer for " Teri ore " in hit romantic comedy " Singh is Kinng ".

Well-known Bollywood writer Javed Akhtar won the best lyricist award for penning the song " Jashn-e-bahaara " for " Jodhaa Akbar ".

Aishwarya was also honoured with a special award for an outstanding achievement in international cinema.

Farhan Akhtar got the best male debutant of the year award for " Rock On !", while Asin Thottumkal got best female debut award for action thriller " Ghajini ".

" Jodhaa Akbar " bagged the maximum technical awards at IIFA.


The best cinematography award went to Jason West for "Rock On!" and the best choreography award went to Farah Khan for the song " Desi girl " in " Dostana ".While ace designer Neeta Lulla walked away with the best costume design award for " Jodhaa Akbar ", best editing trophy went to Ballu Saluja and best art direction to Nitin Chandrakant Desai for the Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starrer historical romance. Best Make Up award went to Madhav Kadam for the same film.


Among the winners in the technical category, Farah and Jason were not present at the event. Resul Pokkutty , who made history by winning an Oscar for his work in "Slumdog Millionaire", bagged sound recording trophy for Aamir Khan starrer " Ghajini ".

What to Expect at IIFA 2009, Macau

10th IIFA Awards in the year 2009 will be held in Macau next month. They are promoted on name of 'Best of the Decade', 'Green IIFA' awards, which are special awards this season. The Brand Ambassador of IIFA is bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

First that is 'Best of the Decade' Special Award will be given for the five popular categories of Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Music Composer. And 'Green IIFA' Special Award will be presented to a film personality who has been working in the area of creating
environment awareness.

Speaking about the choice of the venue of the 10th IIFA, Sabbas said Macau presents a meeting ground for Indian, Chinese and Hong Kong film industries. "IIFA has carefully chosen 'The Venetian', the venue of the three-day event to give finishing touches to organisation of the
gala event," he said.

Choice of the film for the premiere would be decided in a few days depending upon how producers who had stopped new releases in multiplexes since last month, take a decision on fresh release dates. Kaminey and Aladin are on board already and three more films are in
the process of being finalised.

Sonam Kapoor will give her first stage performance ever for IIFA 2009 keeping aside her stage fright. Ritesh Deshmukh and Boman Irani, hosts of last year's IIFA awards event in Bangkok, will entertain this time too.

IIFA's 'Green Agenda' will continue this year too.TERI's campaign 'Lighting a Billion Lights' in association with IIFA has been well received, he said. IIFA has discussed the possibility of a separate event to celebrate non-Hindi language films. Hope this idea also materializes.

The three-day IIFA event will commence on June 11 and the award ceremony will take place on June 13.