London rocks with Zee Cine Awards

Rahul Sharma - Televisionpoint.com
The 8th Sunfeast Zee Cine Awards, once again proved to be mother of all the Cinema Awards by the retro performances of the top stars. The audience cracked up repeatedly with the Awards, rocking the entire London to the Zenith beats. In one fell swoop, the night belonged to Veer Zaara and Swades, winning five awards each.

The performances kicked off with Karan Johar and Juhi Chawla pair, who were the two main anchors again. Juhi Chawla in her beguiling voice sang a wonderful song from the movie My Brother Nikhil. Then Omar Sharif, punctuated the show with his faithful entourage. The show was emceed by the irrepressible Sajid Khan, who conducted a series of Sting Operations on the nominees.

Followed which The Sunfeast Zee Cine Awards saw Bollywood’s best and brightest—Aishwariya Rai, Akshay Kumar, Divya Dutta, Farhan Khan, Javed Akhtar, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Karan Johar, Mahima Chowdhury, Mallika Shrewat, Priety Zinta, Rani Mukherjea, Rekha, Riteish Deshmukh, Salman Khan, Shabana Azmi, Shah Rukh Khan, Shammi Kapoor, Shatrugan Sinha, Zayed Khan, etc. Were all part of the audience thronging the venue.

The four main awards of the night were swept up by Shah Rukh Khan (Best Actor for Veer Zaara), Rani Mukerji (Best Actress for Hum Tum), Yash Chopra (Best Director for Veer-Zaara) and Yash Chopra (Best Film, Veer-Zaara). A special award was instituted this year in memory of Yash Johar for the best producer.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Dharmendra. Rani Mukerji also received a diamond necklace from Zee, invitee Sridevi and Shatrughan Sinha.

How they Rocked
Zee producer of the year award Yash Chopra
Best Film - Veer-Zaara
Best Director - Yash Chopra (Veer-Zara)
Best Actor - Shah Rukh Khan (Veer-Zara)
Best Actress - Rani Mukherji (Hum Tum)
Best Actor in Supporting Role - Abhishek Bachchan (Phir Milenge)
Best Actress in Supporting Role - Divya Dutta (Veer-Zara)
Best Performance in a Comic Role - Ritesh Deshmukh (Masti)
Best Performance in a Negative Role - John Abraham (Dhoom)
Best Music Director - Anu Malik (Main Hoon Na)
Best Playback Singer Male - Kunal Ganjawala (Bheege Honth Tere/Murder)
Best Playback Singer Female - Sunidhi Chauhan (Dhoom Macha Le/Dhoom)
Best Lyricist - Javed Akhtar (Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera/Swades)
Song of the Year - Dhoom Macha Le (Yashraj/Dhoom/Sa Re Ga Ma)
Best Debut Director - Farah Khan (Main Hoon Na)
Best Debut Performance - Gayatri Joshi (Swades)

Although, this year at the Zee Cine Awards night, Abhishekh and Amitabh Bachchan were missing on stage but the irreverence was’t. The theme of this year's event is the destination itself. Over a period of eight years the Zee Cine Awards achieved recognition by the industry stalwarts and has a benchmark for excellence in Indian Cinema.

Shah Rukh Khan who was nominated for three films as best actor, did a star turn as announcer too, unveiling Zee’s new sleek logo. The event was sponsored by the ITC Sunfeast and The Zee Cine Awards trophy is made from 24 carats, 400 GMs pure gold by the citigold corporation.