ROBEEL HAQ SPECIAL REPORT: ZEE CINE AWARDS 2005 (LONDON)

Radio Sargam Report: London is a ‘home away from home’ for the Indian film industry. Therefore it made complete sense for the Zee Cine Awards to host this year’s ceremony in the capital city. Of course this isn’t the first time London was chosen as the venue for a Bollywood awards show. The very first IIFA awards started the trend a few years back and last year the Sangeet Awards were also held in central London. However the scale of the ZEE Cine Awards was much bigger than its predecessors and therefore the hype was a lot more apparent.

A wide range of media were present at the red carpet of the ZEE awards, waiting to catch a glimpse of Bollywood superstars such as Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Preity Zinta. Unfortunately none of the above graced the carpet, much to the disappointment of the media. Luckily a host of other celebrities did give the journalists some time at the grand entrance, including Rani Mukherjee, Vivek Oberoi, Fardeen Khan, Arjun Rampal, Sridevi, Manisha Koirala, Mahima Chaudhary, Diya Mirza, Perizaad Zorabian, Ayesha Takia, Shammi Kapoor, David Dhawan and Dharmendra.

The first hosts of the evening, Karan Johar and Juhi Chawla, shared a nice level of comfort and cracked some joked, which received a great reaction from the audience. Juhi even sang a song from her recent release My Brother Nikhil. She sang at last year’s ceremony too and the reaction was so good she returned for more.

Next, it was Pakistani superstar Omar Shariff’s turn. As usual, he had the audience laughing out loud at his jokes. Unfortunately he kept getting interrupted when various famous faces in the audience were flashed on a big screen behind him, resulting in massive cheers from the general public, but also taking the spark out of a few one-liners from poor old Omar.

Lara Dutta and John Abraham (who made his entrance on a bike in true Dhoom style) also hosted together and the first award they announced was best newcomer - which they were nominated for themselves last year, and didn’t win (as they pointed out in a light-hearted way). Karan also hosted with both Lara and John too.

Sajid Khan also hosted a segment, with the theme of 'sting operations' - a paraody of the recent hidden camera sting affecting Shakti Kapoor. Basically the nominees firstly gave politically correct responses towards those in the same category as themselves. Then the 'hidden camera' caught their more bitchy comments about the competitors. Akshay Kumar, Uday Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and a few others all took part. Funny stuff!

The performances started with a bang - courtesy Zayed Khan and Amrita Arora’s performance. The pair danced to a range of songs, including some funky British Asian tracks, as a nod to the host city.

Akshay Kumar and Mallika Sherawat gave an energetic routine centred around various Punjabi songs, including tracks from Punjabi MC and Jazzy B. Towards the end, Akshay even sang a Punjabi song himself, which sent the audience wild. He ended by calling legendary actor Dharmendra onstage for a final jig together.

Evidently from the screaming, a lot of Salman fans were around in the audience. The superstar danced to Sun Zaara from Lucky, together with a Russian style stage and some fake snow! He then shifted the pace by dancing to a track from Mujhse Shaadi Karoge.

Aishwarya Rai gave a performance that wouldn’t be lost on a West End or Broadway stage. Dancing to some beautiful songs, such as Kehna Hai Kya from Bombay, she had the audience gasping for more.

Preity Zinta started her performance with Tere Liye from Veer Zaara and was joined by co-star Shah Rukh Khan for Main Yahan Hoon from the same film. They also performed to songs from Kal Ho Na Ho, Dilwale Dulhania Le Layenga and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. The highlight of their performance was a special appearance by Reema Khan and Humayun Saeed - together the foursome performed to Bole Chooriyan from K3G and Aisa Des Hai Mera from Veera Zaara - all with the theme of India-Pakistan peace. A nice end to the night’s performances.

 

AWARDS RESULTS (Reported by Radio Sargam):

Written by Robeel Haq