In a glittering ceremony, the winners for the 3rd Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards were announced. Hosted by Javed Jaffery and Indian Hockey team Captain Vidya Malvade, the night was full of stars and had performances by Salman Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor.
Chak De India was the big winner of the night getting honored for: Best Screenplay and Best Story for Jaideep Sahni, Best Editing – Amitabh Shukla, Shimit Amin won the Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role went to Shahrukh Khan and the biggest prize of the night Best Movie.
Kareena Kapoor continued her streak of wins when she once again was named The Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Geet in Jab We Met.
For Best Actor in a Supporting Role Irrfan Khan was once again honored for his work in Life In A… Metro. About wining the award he said, “I feel special about it. My film Metro has changed people’s perception about me as an actor.” His co-star Konkona Sen Sharma recieved the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her outstanding work in the film.
Vinay Pathak’s performance in Bheja Fry brought him the trophy for Best Actor in a Comic Role. For his role on the opposite spectrum of characters, Neil Nitin Mukesh won Best Actor in a Negative Role for his debut film Johnny Gaddaar.
Once again Ranbir Kapoor was named Best Debut (Male) for Saawariya and he said, “It feels great, I worked really hard on Saawariya, and when your work is appreciated it’s heart warming, this one goes with the other, and I’ll sleep peacefully tonight.” Deepika Padukone too was once again named Best Debut (Female) for Om Shanti Om. She said, “It’s a wonderful feeling that my first film is winning so many awards, so thank you everyone.”
Speaking of Om Shanti Om, the film won several other awards including: Best Choreography Farah Khan, Best Costume Design for Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar, Sanjeev Mulchandani and Red Chillies VFX won for Best Special Effects.
In the music categories: Guru won Best Lyrics – Gulzar for ‘Tere Bina’ and Shreya Ghosal won Best Female Playback Singer for ‘Barso Re’. Best Male Playback Singer was awarded to Shaan for the song ‘Jab Se Tere Naina’ in Saawariya. Pritam won the biggest music prize of the night Best Music for Jab We Met.
Jab We Met also won Best Dialogue for Imtiaz Ali bringing its total to 3! Guru’s total was also 3 with along with the 2 music award the Best Cinematography award was won by Rajiv Menon.
There were some special awards presented during the evening’s festivities and Yash Chopra was recognized for his outstanding contributions to Indian cinema. He said, “Its a very emotional thing. The decision of the awards is my friends and colleagues from the industry.”
NDTV named Akshay Kumar the NDTV Imagine Best Entertainer of the Year and in a surprising choice named Salman Khan and Govinda for the NDTV Imagine Best Jodi of the Year for Partner.
Finally ARY, a Pakistani television channel, presented 2 awards; one to Katrina Kaif for the ARY Style Diva Award and the ARY Style Icon Award went to Hrithik Roshan. Hrithik was not there, but his father Rakesh accepted the award on his behalf.
Only films that released before November 30th were eligible for nominations and the winners were decided by votes from professionals in the film industry.
