Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan were cited as best actor and best actress respectively at the star-studded 55th Filmfare Awards ceremony here late Saturday.
Bachchan won the award for his role in “Paa”, while Vidya Balan claimed the trophy for her role in the same movie. As Bachchan was not present in the ceremony, Vidya Balan took the award on his behalf.
Bachchan didn’t attend 55th Filmfare Awards ceremony Saturday, where he won the best actor award, as he had sought an apology by the organising group’s newspaper over something published about one of his family members.
“I felt that the modesty of a lady in my house has been outraged. The topic that was brought up was very, very insensitive. No woman likes her motherhood or her capability of procreation or fertility to be talked about, ” he said.
“If you read the constitution of India, you will find that in our Article 21 it is clearly mentioned that if you defame any woman and talk about her motherhood, fertility or process of procreation, it is defamatory, ” he added.
“I have felt that Aishwarya was slandered by this article and therefore we asked them to apologise, which they didn’t. It is very difficult for me to go to an award function, sing, dance and applaud when that very paper abused a lady of my house, ” said Bachchan.
Hosting the gala night were Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan, whose one liners had the audience in splits. Their on-stage chemistry was much appreciated by the Bollywood stars present at the ceremony at the Yash Raj Studios.
“3 Idiots” was declared the best film, while Rajkumar Hirani claimed the best director award for the movie.
A.R. Rahman won the best music director for “Delhi 6”.
Mohit Chauhan won the award for the best male playback singer for the song “masakali” from the movie “Delhi 6”, while the female playback singer honours were shared by Kavita Seth and Rekha Bhardwaj.
While Kavita was awarded for the song “Ik tara” from the movie “Wake Up Sid”, Rekha won the trophy for the song “Genda phool” from the movie “Delhi 6”.
Among the other highlights of the evening was a tribute to legendary pop singer Michael Jackson by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor, who charmed the audience with his perfect dance moves.