The ‘Black’ lady sings!Gup shup...

The 'Black' lady sings!

So, Black was the colour of the evening but here's what happened at the 51st Fair One Filmafare Awards

Ram Kamal Mukherjee

When it's the Filmfare night, everyone who is anyone in Bollywood makes sure to be seen. And Saturday night was a starry night in all respects. To begin with, there were some power-packed performances by Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan and Lara Dutta among others. Then The Big B himself descended… his first public appearance since he recovered from his illness. And of course Will Smith was there too.

As for Bachchan, he was one happy man as he received the popular as well as critics' award for the Best Actor. Rani Mukherji who also won the two awards for the Best Actress, was heard gushing, "My thank you list is endless." She then went on to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Shabana Azmi who was of course enthralled herself.

But the person who was most amazed was Will Smith who said, "As against the Oscars, I think Indian film awards are so much more colourful."

We also spotted Tabu who sizzled in a sexy black outfit (has she lost weight?) Needless to say, the evening was one gala affair.

Gup shup...

Hrithik Roshan who arrived with dad Rakesh Roshan was never called on the stage. Soon enough, Hrithik began to feel hot and started using his invitation card to fan himself.

Amitabh Bachchan was in Abhishek's make-up van because he couldn't sit for long in the humid weather. Jaya Bachchan was seen with a low profile Amar Singh (post-controversy). We couldn't help noticing Jaya's pallu which got stuck in Aishwarya's chair. She immediately freed it and went back to her seat.

Abhishek Bachchan stayed back even after everyone left. He was extremely happy that his father won the two awards. He showed his trophy to everyone. "He met all of us after the show... even the kids who were perfoming ," says Shaimak Davar. Now that's who you call a gentleman.

We also caught Hema Malini and Rekha bonding with each other. They entered hand-in-hand and stylishly late. The two ladies were even wearing the same colour… a white sari with crystal work. And while they were getting off the stage after presenting Sanjay Leela Bhansali his award, we overheard Rekha saying, "Hemu, sambhalke." Sweet!

Special seats were organised in the front row for Aishwarya Rai and her family. Why? Because she wanted to watch Abhishek perform on stage. While Amitabh was seeing the monitor backstage, Ash cheered and clapped throughout the act. The shutterbugs, of course had a field day.

Of all the ladies we spotted, we thought Sridevi was the worst dressed. While most of the South Indian brigade were sporting kanjeevaram, she came in a not-so-stylish black outfit.

Shah Rukh Khan missed the show because he was shooting for Don. A little birdie told us, "This year was lull for Khan, he knew that he won't win any award so he didn't turn up." Now that's not fair Shah Rukh.

Preity Zinta came and mingled with her core group, the Johars, the Chopras, the Roshans and the Bachchans. We say Preity, you should make more friends.

Akshay Kumar received the Best Actor in a Comedy Role award for Garam Masala but didn't collect it. Apparently, he was very disappointed. Why? It seems he doesn't consider himself a comedian. So he chose to release a Ritu Beri book in Delhi. Now, that's funny!