‘Zindagi Na…,’ and ‘Rockstar' sweep IIFA 2012

The big winners of the 13th International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) held on June 9, 2012 in Singapore  were Zoya Akhtar`s ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ and Imtiaz Ali`s ‘Rockstar.’ The movies won four trophies each.

A story about three bachelors, ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara,’ bagged awards for the best film, best story, best actor in supporting role for Farhan Akhtar and best director for Farhan’s elder sister Zoya Akhtar.

One of 2011’s highest grossing films ‘Rockstar’ helped Ranbir Kapoor, AR Rahman and Mohit Chauhan stand tall on the big night. The trio walked away with awards for best actor, best music direction and best playback singer respectively.

It’s interesting to note that Ranbir, who played a struggling singer in ‘Rockstar’ beat actors such as Amitabh Bachchan (‘Aarakshan'), Salman Khan (‘Bodyguard’), Shah Rukh Khan (‘Don 2’) and Hrithik Roshan (‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’) to become the best actor of 2011.

Vidya Balan who starred in the biopic about south Indian vamp Silk Smitha in ‘The Dirty Picture’ outshone actresses such as Pryianka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Mahie Gill and Kangna Ranaut to win the award for best actress in a leading role.

Debutante actress and Priyanka Chopra’s cousin Parineeti Chopra was maudlin when she was presented with two awards for for best debut female and best actress in a supporting role female for the romantic comedy ‘Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl.’ Vidyut Jamwal, on the other hand, won the award for best debut male for his performance in ‘Force’.

Veteran actor Prakash Raj won the IIFA award for best performance in a negative role for ‘Singham’. The other nominees in the category were Naseeruddin Shah for ‘The Dirty Picture’, Irrfan Khan for ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, Boman Irani for ‘Don 2’ and Vidyut Jamwal for ‘Force’.

The award for best performance in comic role was presented to Riteish Deshmukh for the film ‘Double Dhamaal’.

While this year’s IIFA was noteworthy for its humorous content presented by hosts Shahid Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar and mind-blowing stage performances by Sonakshi Sinha, Bipasha Basu, Prabhu Deva, Priyanka Chopra, Shahid and Rishi and Ranbir Kapoor, it did sorely miss the big B’wood players including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham, Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, and Sonam Kapoor.