MAX Stardust Awards 2009 – a scintillating affair

MAX Stardust Awards 2009 – a scintillating affair

Like every year, this year too, the MAX Stardust Awards 2009 was a dazzling, star-shimmering event held on Sunday, February 15, 2009 in Mumbai. Luminaries from the Hindi film industry came out in their gorgeous best to grace the event and acknowledge the super talented, new league of actors emerging in Bollywood.

The award ceremony was like none other in recent times. In fact Mr. Amitabh Bachchan has echoed this in his blog where he says that MAX Stardust Awards have always rewarded areas that have been either ignored or not brought up for consideration, and that is what is different about them in comparison with some of the other ceremonies.

The hosts of the glittering evening were the lovely Minnisha Lamba and the humorous Tusshar Kapoor. Fresh from the success of 'Golmaal Returns', Tusshar kept the audience enthralled with his inimitable Golmaal style and had the audience in splits.

The highlight of the evening was Anil Kapoor's performance on stage for the first time in seven years where he danced to the tracks of some of his most popular numbers from 'Woh Saat Din' to 'Ram Lakhan' and many more. He ended the medley with an exhilarating performance on the signature song 'Jai Ho' from the acclaimed 'Slumdog Millionaire' saluting the spirit and success of Bollywood. In fact, in his acceptance speech for a special award bestowed upon him for taking Indian cinema global and completing 30 years in Hindi cinema, he remarked, "This is my Oscar!"

Dev Anand and Feroz Khan were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards, and Devsaab looking a sprightly 86, spoke about how he was still going strong and looking forward to his new movie releasing later this year! Fardeen Khan accepted the award on his father's behalf as the ailing senior Khan could not be present.

Besides the awards and accolades, the award ceremony had a medley of extravagant entertainment, which included electrifying, foot-tapping performances from Minissha Lamba and Neetu Chandra. Amisha Patel floored the audience with her 'Lazy Lamhe' act. The ravishing Priyanka Chopra set the stage on fire with a truly electrifying dance on a medley of her famous tracks while Salman Khan brought the grand event to its close with a rocking performance that brought the house down.

MAX Stardust Awards is really where the film community comes together to recognize their own without any controversy or ugliness. The who's who of the industry was present at these awards. Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan with Amar Singh, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, Rekha, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, Ashutosh and Sunita Gowariker, Farhan Akhtar, Boney and Sridevi Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut and Adhyayan Suman, Amrita Rao, Asin, Neha Dhupia, Koena Mitra, Abbas-Mustan, Anu Malik, Genelia D'Souza and many more graced the red carpet.

The event had extravagant sets coupled with lasers, special effects, lighting and acoustics to create a magnificent audio and visual impact. The sets replicated the ocean and the event truly took the audience on a fabulous ride, one that they'd never want to end. Watch out for all this and more when the spectacular MAX Stardust Awards is telecast on MAX on 28 February 2009 at 8 pm. -Sampurn Media

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