Rich haul for Devdas at Screen-Videocon Awards

The Asian Paints Screen-Videocon Awards concluded on the night of Thursday, January 16, with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas going home with 11 major awards.

After the Zee Fairglow Cine Awards last week, Devdas scored the top four -- Best Actor Shah Rukh Khan, who tied up for the honour with Ajay Devgan for Company, Best Actress Aishwarya Rai, Best Film and Best Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

But while this epic missed awards for Best Music Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Art Direction at the Zee Fairglow Cine Awards, Devdas secured all these three awards for Ismail Durbar, Madhuri Dixit and Nitin Desai respectively at the Asian Paints Screen-Videocon Awards.

Composer Nadeem Saifi, who expected to win the award for Raaz, is very upset in London for what he perceives as blatant discrimination against the "biggest musical hit of 2002".

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma won his first award ever, when he won the Special Jury Award for his work in Company. 

Meanwhile, here is a blast from the past. Vyjayanthimala had flatly refused to accept the Best Supporting Actress Award for playing the golden hearted courtesan Chandramukhi in Bimal Roy's Devdas years ago. She had argued that she was not the supporting actress in Devdas.

Now, Madhuri's award as Best Supporting Actress for Devdas has raised many eyebrows.

Though Bhansali seems ecstatic about his favourite actress winning the award, he is also extremely disappointed on Kiron Kher's behalf.

"This is the second award she [Kiron] has missed out on. It is truly sad that her work is not getting recognised."

Gurpreet Gill threatens legal action

Vivek Oberoi's ex-fiancee Gurpreet Gill is contemplating legal action against magazines publishing what she calls malicious lies against her.

Gossip magazines recently said she was a divorcee with a child before she met Vivek Oberoi. Gurpreet shakes her head in disbelief . "I'm appalled and bewildered. Am I expected to stoop to these people's level by reacting to such hurtful and damaging insinuations?

"Initially, this rumour started when I was mistaken for [former Miss India] Manpreet Brar. Thereafter, the press clarified saying they mistook me for Manpreet. Now, out of the blue, this offensive rumour is being thrown around by God-knows-who. It appeared in a Delhi newspaper recently. Now I will take legal action against any journalist who is instigated into saying such things."

Arjun Rampal wants to see Jism

Bipasha Basu has gone on-record to state that she would rather see Jism than Dil Ka Rishta.

Arjun Rampal, hero of Dil Ka Rishta, also releasing Friday, January 17, says, "Well I'm sure Dil Ka Rishta will surprise people. I'm sure Bipasha and John [Abraham] are good in Jism.  I'd like to see the film to see what it's about."

According to early reports, the film has just opened to an amazing response all over the country. According to distributors, the audience for the film composes both men and women. "There are hardly any sleaze-seekers among the audience," says Bihar exhibitor Roshan Singh.

With two heroine-oriented triumphs (Ajnabee and Raaz) under her belt, Bipasha seems to have an edge over Aishwarya Rai.