Mumbai, January 22
It was a ‘Black’ night at the 2nd Apsara Film and Television Awards, with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s tale of relationship between a teacher and deaf blind student running away with all the honours, bagging 10 awards in all, including the one for the best film.
Rani Mukherjee bagged the Best Actress trophy for her portrayal of a deaf blind girl in `Black’, Amitabh Bachchan won the Best Actor award for his role as Debraj Sahai in the same movie, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali won the Best Director award last night. ‘Black’ also won four awards in technical category including Best Cinematographer for Ravi
Chandran.
Speaking in an emotionally choked voice, Bhansali dedicated the award to all deaf-blind persons who, he said, teach us how to live.
Among the award winners were Abhishek Bachchan who won Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in Mani Rathnam’s `Yuva’ and child actor Ayesha Kapoor who bagged the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her portrayal as the young Rani Mukherjee in `Black.’
The Awards, organised by the Film and Television Producer Guild of India took into consideration films released in 2005 and 2004 and also honoured veterans of the film industry for their contribution over the years.
Both actor Dev Anand and producer director B.R. Chopra were honoured with lifetime achievement awards while media tycoons Pranoy Roy of NDTV and Aroon Poorie of the Today group were also given lifetime awards for outstanding contribution to television.
In the music category, Shaad Ali’s ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ was a clear winner, winning as many as four awards, including the one for Best Music Director for
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Best Lyricist for Gulzar (Kajra Re), Best Choreography Vaibhavi Merchant
(Kajra Re) and Best Singer (Alish Chinai for Kajra Re).
Newcomer Vidya Balan and director Pradeep Sarkar won best debut awards for ‘Parineeta’. — PTI
