Black sweeps 7th IIFA awards;Yorkshire to host next year's event

Dubai, June 17 (UNI) Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' won the maximum number of awards in the popular categories at the 7th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards held at the Airport Expo here last night.

''Black'' won awards for the Best Film, Best Director (Sanjay Leela Bhansali), Best actor (Amitabh Bachchan), Best actress (Rani Mukherji) and Best supporting actress (Ayesha Kapoor). In the technical awards, the film bagged trophies for cinematography, editing, Sound recording and Background score.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali did not attend the function as he is busy filming his next movie ''Sanwariya'' starring Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor children of Rishi and Anil Kapoor respectively. The award was collected on his behalf by his sister Bela Sehgal who edited ''Black''.

IIFA Brand Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan announced that the next year's IIFA weekend would be held in Yorkshire (UK). The first IIFA weekend was held in 2006 at the Millennium Dome in London.

Malyalam superstar Mamoothy welcomed IIFA's invitation to actors from other Indian languages to the weekend this year. ''I refuse to be called as a South Indian actor. We are all Indians. Other language films should also be nominated in the awards categories for IIFA as it is an International Indian awards function. Indian cinema does not comprise only Hindi movies,'' he said.

IIFA gave away a host of special awards this year- the Life Time contribution to cinema awards went to cinematographer K K Mahajan, noted actress Asha Parekh and writer-director-producer O P Dutta.

Idea Glamorous star award went to Preity Zinta, Idea creative person award was shared by directors Nagesh Kuknoor and Pradeep Sarkar.

Idea award for innovation went to animation film ''Hanuman''.

Nagesh Kuknoor won the best story trophy for Iqbal, Abhishek Bachchan received the best actor in supporting role award for ''Sarkar''. Boney Kapoor's ''No Entry'' bagged the best entertainer award in the UAE and Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj was honoured with the Global Indian award.

Vidya Balan (Parineeta) and Shiney Ahuja (Hazaron Kwaishein Aisi) received the best debut awards. Javed Jafri received the first film award of his career for his performance as a comedian in Salaam Namaste, Nana Patekar was given the best actor in negative role for ''Apaharan''. Manmohan Shetty who has produced the film collected the award on Nana's behalf.

Alisha Chinai (Kajra Re) received the best playback singer (female) trophy and Himesh Reshamiya (Aashiq Banaya Aapne) received the best playback singer (male) award. Gulzar bagged the best lyricist award for ''Kajra re''. The trophy was collected by Bunty Aur Babli director Shaad Ali. Music composer trio of Shankar-Ehsaan Loy received the best music director award for Bunty aur Babli.

Vaibhavi Merchant bagged the best choreographer award for ''Kajra re''. Parineeta won awards for best screenplay, art direction, make up, costumes and song recording.

The more than three hour star studded extravanganza saw dazzling performances by Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar who made a stylish entry riding a camel, Preity Zinta who danced to the tunes of numbers like Laila o Laila, Pyar do Pyar lo and Mehboob Mere which were inspired by Arabic music. Saif Ali Khan paid a musical tribute to Rishi Kapoor and Rani Mukherji re-lived the magic of ''Black'' by her performance on stage. She was joined by her co-actor in the film Amitabh Bachchan.

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