Amsterdam, June 12
Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee walked away with the Best Actor and Actress trophies as Yashraj Film’s “Veer-Zaara” bagged six awards at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards ceremony here.

“Veer-Zaara”, directed by veteran director Yash Chopra, bagged awards for Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Music Direction and Story with only the Best Actress and Supporting Actor awards not going its way.

The movie, a superhit in India, portrays a love-story between an Indian Army officer and a Pakistani girl, set in Pakistan. At home it has won nearly all major awards, including the Filmfare.

While Rani Mukherjee won the Best Actress award for “Hum Tum”, Abhishek pipped dad Amitabh Bachchan to the post by bagging the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his performance in “Yuva”.

Rani also picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for — again — “Veer-Zaara”.

The extravaganza at the Amsterdam Arena, which began yesterday evening, stretched upto early hours today.

But the highlight of the evening was Abhishek Bachchan’s debut performance on the international stage which saw him shaking a leg to chartbusters from his recent film “Bunty aur Babli” and the to-be-released “Dus”. The Big B and Aishwarya Rai joined him on stage for one of the numbers.

Performances by Aishwarya, Salman Khan, Isha Sharwani, Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor and others, complemented by Shiamak Davar’s choreography and Vikram Phadnis’ costumes, ensured that the four-and-half-hour long event remained a memorable one.

Earlier, Shah Rukh Khan, also the main host of the ceremony, made a dramatic entry on a horse-drawn carriage. Not to be outdone, Amitabh Bachchan cycled his way to the stage.

The Big B then dedicated the ceremony to the memory of Yash Johar and actor Sunil Dutt who passed away recently.

Cinematographer V.K. Murthy was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the ceremony along with actress Shabana Azmi.

The entire cast of the movie “Chocolate”, Anil Kapoor, Emraan Hashmi, Arshad Warsi, Tanushree Dutta and Sushma Reddy performed to hits from their forthcoming flick while singers Daler Mehndi and Hariharan danced to numbers from their new album “Destiny”.

Others performing at the ceremony included pop group “Bombay Rockers” and the all-girl band “Rouge”.

The irrepressible Shah Rukh Khan, in his umpteenth avatar as award-ceremony host, could not resist having a dig at the who’s who of the film fraternity — be it John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee or Dino Morea.

Collaborating with Khan as hosts for specific segments were actor Fardeen Khan and filmmaker Karan Johar.

Two days after the Netherlands named a special variety of tulip after her, Aishwarya Rai bagged a special Global Indian Media Personality award, while Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta were honoured as the Style Icon and Style Diva of the Year.

Akshay Kumar was adjudged the Best Actor in a Comic Role for his performance in “Mujhse Shaadi Karogi” while hot favourite John Abraham won the Best Performance in a Negative Role award for “Dhoom”.

Ayesha Takia, who starred in “Taarzan” and “Socha Na Tha” bagged the Best Debut award for 2004.

In an irony of sorts, the late Madan Mohan won the Best Music Director award for “Veer-Zaara”. The music composer’s son Sanjeev Kohli made an emotional speech on the occasion, recalling how his father who had never won any popular award during his lifetime, won this award 30 years after his death.

Javed Akhtar (“Pal pal... — “Swades”) had to share the Best Trophy award with Sayeed Quadri who penned the chartbuster “Bheegay hont tere” in the film “Murder”.

The song also garnered Kunal Ganjawala the Best Male Playback Singer award while Sunidhi Chauhan was adjudged the Best Female Playback Singer for her rendition of the title track of the movie “Dhoom”.

Filmmaker Farah Khan picked up the Best Debut Director award for her blockbuster hit “Main Hoon Na”, while Aditya Chopra bagged the Best Story award for “Veer-Zaara”.

Among the technical awards, “Maqbool” won for Best Dialogue and Screenplay, while “Mujhse Shaadi Karogi” picked up four awards for Best Choreography (Farah Khan), Art Direction, Background Score and Costume.

“Chameli” won for Best Cinematography while “Veer-Zaara” picked up another award for Best Make-up. “Dhoom” won for Best Action while “Aitraaz” was adjudged winner in the Best Editing and Sound Recording categories.

The Best Song-Recording honour went to “Murder” while “Main Hoon Na” won for Best Special Effects.