Glitz, glam and a few surprises
January 28, 2008
By Debashine Thangevelo
Of the newcomers who joined the Bollywood fray last year, there is no denying that unrelated star kids Ranbir Kapoor (son of veteran actor Rishi and Neetu Singh) and Sonam Kapoor (Anil's daughter), who were paired in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Saawariya, as well as Deepika Padukone, who was paired with the iconic Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om, made the biggest impact. And so it is not surprising that all three bagged nominations in the Superstar of Tomorrow categories.
With Ranbir, who reminds one of a young Hrithik Roshan in the making, competing against Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kunal Khemu, Ruslan Mumtaz and Muzzamil Ibrahim, his chance of walking away with the award is looking favourable.
On Himesh Reshammiya landing a nomination for the same award, one can only hope it was a big mistake - he was obviously supposed to be shunted to one of the music categories. Not. By the by, rumour has it the singer-cum-actor will be making his way to South African for a two-city concert.
Bollyworld's vote for Superstar of Tomorrow - Female goes to Padukone, who managed to make an indelible impression despite being overshadowed by SRK.
The less said about the Breakthrough Performance Male nominations, the better. The choices are dreadful. As for the female category, it looks like Kangana Ranaut is primed to bag the honours.
Although Anil Kapoor deserves recognition for producing Gandhi My Father, the judges will have a tough time deciding on the winner - all of the candidates deserve the nomination for delivering fresh, engaging and compelling offerings in contrasting genres.
Why Rani Mukherjee bagged a Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Saawariya and not Zohra Seghal baffles? Especially with Seghal being the more captivating performer.
Govinda gets the thumbs up for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Pawan Malhotra for Best Actor in a Negative Role.
If one had to single out the actor and actress who made the biggest impression last year, it would be Akshay Kumar and Madhuri Dixit. Ideally, they should take male and female honours for Star of the Year.
The Dream Director Award is a toss up between Mani Ratnam and Aamir Khan and Chak De! India, Taare Zameen Par and Guru are the big contenders for Best Film.
The Nominees Are:
Superstar of Tomorrow - Female: Sagarika Ghatge (Chak De! India), Hansikaa Motwani (Aap Ka Suroor), Jiah Khan (Nishabd), Deepika Padukone (Om Shanti Om) and Sonam Kapoor (Saawariya)
Breakthrough Performance - Male: Shreyas Talpade (Om Shanti Om), Imaaduddin Shah (Dil Dosti Etc), Kal Penn (The Namesake) and Vikram Chatwal (Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd)
Breakthrough Performance - Female: Chitrashi Rawat (Chak De! India), Anjana Sukhani (Salaam-E-Ishq), Kangana Ranaut (Life… In a Metro), Shreya Saran (Awaarapan), Swini Khera (Cheeni Kum), Ashwini Kalsekar (Johnny Gaddaar) and Sunita Rajwar (Ek Chalis Ki Last Local)
The New Menace: Shilpa Shukla (Chak De! India), Zakir Hussain (Johnny Gaddaar), Shabbir Ahluwalia (Shootout at Lokhandwala), Ashok Samarth (Ek Chalis Ki Last Local) and Sudhir Mishra (Traffic Signal)
Hottest Film Producers: Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd (Ritesh Sidhwani / Farhan Akhtar), Ek Chalis Ki Last Local (Quartet Films), Gandhi My Father (Anil Kapoor), Bheja Fry (Sunil Doshi), Loins of Punjab (Horn Ok Please Entertainment) and Manorama Six Feet Under (Shemaroo)
Hottest Young Filmmaker: Shimit Amin (Chak De! India), Sriram Raghavan (Johnny Gaddaar), Navdeep Singh (Manorama Six Feet Under), Sagar Bellary (Bheja Fry), Sajid Khan (Heyy Babyy), Feroze Abbas Khan (Gandhi My Father), Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met), R Balki (Cheeni Kum)
Standout Performance by Lyricist: Amar Maqsood for Unke Nashe Main from Shootout At Lokhandwala; Sandeep Srivastava for Baatein Kucch Ankahi Si from Life… In A Metro; Sandeep Nath for Yoon Shabnami Pehle Nahi Thi Chandni from Saawariya; Shabbir Ahmed for Soni Ke Nakhre from Partner; Sanjay Chhel for Do You Want A Partner? from Partner and Mika for Aye Ganpat from Shootout At Lokhandwala.
New Musical Sensation - Female: Hard Kaur for Move Your Body from Johnny Gaddaar; Maryem Toller for Mayya Mayya from Guru; Anoushka Manchanda for Aye Chori from Cash; Akriti Kakkar for the title track of Johnny Gaddaar; Suzanne for Mahiya from Aawarapan and Aanchal for Dus from Dus Kahaniyaan.
New Musical Sensation - Male: Krishna & Salim Merchant - Maula Mere (Chak De! India); Neeraj Sridhar - Ticket to Hollywood (Jhoom Barabar Jhoom) and title track to Bhool Bhulaiyaa; Soham - Inn Dino (Life… In A Metro); Suhail Kaul - Baatein Kucch Ankahi Si (Life… In A Metro); Mika for the title track to Shootout at Lokhandwala and Aye Ganpat and Mauja Hi Mauja (Jab We Met); Shail Hada for the title track to Saawariya.
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
