Shahrukh, Rani and Black top favourites' list

New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) Despite a lacklustre 2005 which saw his only release 'Paheli' meet with a lukewarm box office response, Shahrukh remains a favourite of the Bollywood lovers in India and abroad while Rani Mukherjee is the favourite among Bollywood heroines.

These were the results of the Star Gold's 'Sabsey Favourite Kaun' poll, which saw over 9 lakh fans from India and 23 nations across the globe choose their favourites in seven categories -- Favourite Hero, Favourite Heroine, Favourite Naya Hero, Favourite Nayi Heroine, Favourite Comic Hero, Favourite Film and Sabse Tez Sitara.

Shahrukh Khan won the Favourite Hero award by a narrow margin, over Salman Khan, which proved that while Shahrukh is truly King Khan, the masses adoration for Salman remains undiminished despite all his recent travails.

The ''Favourite Heroine'' award was bagged by Bengali beauty Rani Mukerji who pipped Aishwarya Rai and Kajol for the award.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Black' won in the 'Sabsey Favourite Film' category, laying to rest all arguments about it being the favourite of only the classes.

In the Sabsey Favourite Naya Hero category the fight was really close between Kunal Kapoor and Kunal Khemu, with Kunal Kapoor coming through in the end. Doe eyed Vidya Balan won the 'Sabsey Favourite Nayi Heroine', pipping Katrina Kaif to the post. The Sabsey Favourite Comic Hero saw a hat trick as Paresh Rawal bagged the award for the third year in a row.

The 'Sabsey Tez Sitara' Award -- the only award not voted in by fans, but where film industry experts pick out the rising star who has made the most strides in the last one year -- went to John Abraham. He followed in the footsteps of Abhishek Bachchan who had won last year.

And it is the viewers themselves who have chosen the nominees as well as the winners of Star Gold's Schwarzkopf Palette Sabsey Favourite Kaun 2006 -- the only awards show were winners are honoured for their popularity and not performances in a particular film.

While the Sabsey Favourite Kaun Election Express covered 45 towns&24,000 km to collect almost 1 lakh votes from fans to create the nomination lists, more than 8 Lakh votes came in through SMS, the internet (indya.com ) and televoting to choose the final winners. In all, almost 9 lakh votes from India as well as countries as far flung as Afghanistan, Peru, Bahrain, Tanzania, Mozambique, Bangladesh , the US, the UK and the West Asia were cast to choose the eventual winners.

The awards were given at a glittering function in Mumbai on May 7 which saw Trickbaby from London perform their megahits from Bluffmaster. What's more, the video of the song 'Nine Parts of Desire', featuring Abhishek Bachchan, was unveiled for the first time, at the awards ceremony.

Udita Goswami and Kunal Khemu rocked the event as they performed a medley of Himesh Reshammiya songs -- remixed to reflect the various musical forms of the country. The show stopper of the show was, however, Hrithik Roshan; who, in a thrilling performance, tracked his journey from 'Koi Mil Gaya' to 'Krrish'. This was also his first ever stage performance based on 'Krrish'. The whole performance was specially choreographed by ace choreographer Ganesh Hegde.

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