Lagaan wins top honours at IIFA

Bharati Dubey in Malaysia

A lot of Bollywood's film personalities, including nominees, failed to put in appearances at the third International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards which was held on April 6 at the Genting Highlands, Malaysia.

But the venue was packed to capacity by locals who couldn't get enough of the 2001 blockbuster Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

However, it was the Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan which had an edge over K3G, as it bagged nine awards including Best Actor (Aamir Khan), Best Director (Ashutosh Gowariker), Best Music (A R Rahman), Best Female Playback Singer (Asha Bhosle), Best Lyrics (Javed Akhtar), Best Story and Best Editing.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham also got its fair share of awards with Jaya Bachchan bagging the Best Supporting Actress trophy and Sonu Nigam winning for Best Male Playback Singer.

Salman Khan gave away the best actress award to Tabu (Chandni Bar), which was received by the film's director Madhur Bhandarkar. Fardeen Khan, who presented the Best Supporting Actor to Saif Ali Khan (Dil Chahta Hai, enacted a dance sequence from the film, before presenting the trophy to Saif.

Akshay Kumar, who stayed away from the function because of an alleged fallout with Aankhen producer Gaurang Doshi, won Best Villain for his performance in Ajnabee.

The surprise of the evening was Govinda winning the Best Comedian award for Jodi No 1. The award was accepted on the actor's behalf by David Dhawan.

Although, there was no special category for Best Newcomer, the Sony Face Of The Year was shared by Arjun Rampal, Gracy Singh and Bipasha Basu.

Amitabh Bachchan was honoured with Electrolux Kelvinator Award for personality of the year while yesteryear actress Sadhana was presented with the Lifetime achievement award. Filmmaker Feroze Khan also paid her an impromptu tribute. A special tribute was paid to Yash Chopra by Karan Johar and Shaimak Davar as a dance medley of the filmmakers songs was performed by Shaimak's troupe.

Maharashtra Home Minister Chhagan Bhujbal presented a special momento to the entire Lagaan team. Mira Nair was awarded a special award for her outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. Nair's mother, who accepted the award on Mira's behalf said, "When Salaam Bombay was being launched at Cannes, someone saw me in a sari and came up to to ask whether I had anything to do with Salaam Bombay. I told them I was the producer of the director of the film."

Sushmita Sen set the mood for the evening with her rendition of the Moulin Rouge number with great elan as part of Bollywood's tribute to Hollywood.

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