"I hope that I can entertain you guys for the rest of my life"
The 17th annual International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards held in the Spanish capital of Madrid were nothing less than a spectacular event in terms of performances, production value and entertainment.
Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar hosted the show, where they made a grand entry on donkeys, accompanied by footballers and flamenco dancers, embracing the culture of Madrid.
Their comic segments involved many people from the film fraternity, such as Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor and the always ready to sing, dance and joke around, Ranveer Singh.
Their introduction to Deepika’s act was particularly funny, where Shahid played Amitabh Bachchan in Piku whilst Farhan played Ranveer Singh in Bajirao Mastani.
The IIFAs had a selection of performances from Bollywood’s most loved celebrities. Tiger Shroff gave an energetic tribute to his idols Michael Jackson and Hrithik Roshan, whilst Sonakshi gave a vibrant tribute to Sridevi.
Hrithik’s act brought you back to the debut years while Salman Khan’s performance also ranged from his classics to his upcoming release, Sultan. Priyanka Chopra showed her multitalented prowess through singing and dancing to songs.
Deepika Padukone transported audiences to a cinematic experience of Bajirao Mastani.
The highlight being her performing to Ranveer’s steps of Malhari. Ranveer loved the performance so much that he couldn’t stop talking about it even in his Best Actor speech.
He said to Deepika: “Girl, you so fine.” In his speech, he described winning the best actor award at IIFAs for Bajirao Mastani as special, similar to when he won the Best Debut award in 2010. He said: “This is just the beginning.”
Ranveer Singh also could not stop raving about Kapoor and Sons when he was on the green carpet with IIFA Rocks’ hosts, Karan Johar and Fawad Khan.
Karan revealed how he became: “An obsessive binge watcher of Zindagi Gulzar Hai. I then called Fawad up and said you have to do the film.”
Deepika Padukone who won Best Actress for Piku, dedicated her award to those behind the scenes, particularly the writers. She also spoke about how important it is for women to feel good about themselves and get involved in sport.
Deepika, in a stunning Sabyasachi ensemble, said on the green carpet: “I feel good about myself and I feel confident. Sports and being an athlete has taught me a lot. Women often put other people in front of us, but it’s okay to take a step back and do something for yourself sometimes.”
Bajrangi Bhaijaan won Best Film and the award was collected by Kabir Khan. Kabir said to DESIblitz:
“Bajrangi Bhaijaan has had a great run at the box office and at the other awards. This is the last awards so we’ve been looking forward to it. The entire industry is here so its like one big party!”
The Bajirao Mastani trio, Ranveer, Priyanka and Deepika, came together to present the award to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for best director, which was heart warming.
Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty won Best Debut Couple award for Hero. Currently, Athiya is going to start working on something soon whilst Sooraj is working on Remo D’souza’s next, which combines action and dance.
It is the latter though that Sooraj is more worried about: “I struggle getting the steps right.”
Sooraj sang his hit, ‘Main Hoon Hero Tera’ on the green carpet. He also ended up joining Salman Khan singing to it in the finale of the awards show. Salman also brought Deepika, Priyanka and Ranveer in an exciting medley of 2015’s biggest songs.
Bhumi Pednekar won Best Debutant Female for Dum Laga Ke Haisha, and gave a small acceptance speech on the green carpet: “Thank you so much for giving this much love and support. I hope that I can entertain you guys for the rest of my life.”
Darshan Kumar, who won Best Negative Role for NH10, revealed that he chooses the roles he does depending on whether the film touches his heart. After being highly praised in his recent performance in Sarbjit, his next movie is a love story, Mirza Juliet.
Both Papon and Monali Thakur took away Best Playback Singers for ‘Moh Moh Ke Dhaage’ and found themselves singing the loved song many times on the IIFA green carpet. Singer, Benny Dayal, admitted that it was his favourite song of 2015.
Meet Brothers who won best music for Roy told DESIblitz about their upcoming projects: “Befikra is our next release coming out next week and then there’s a lot of romance this year.”
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra launched the Mirzya trailer. Newlyweds Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover were the best dressed couple on the green carpet. Bipasha revealed how she never expected to get married:
“When he proposed to me, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, ‘Why do you want to get married to me?’ Then after 15 minutes, I said, ‘Okay’.”
Bipasha also mentioned how Karan sings a lot to her, and sang a romantic Punjabi song on the green carpet: “I’ve never met someone like me – the first thing we want to do is go to the gym,” said Bipasha.
The performers of IIFA Rocks were pleased about their performance despite having nerves beforehand.
Shilpa’s nerves were due to it her being her first awards performance after 9 years whilst Elli said she was about to cry: “But once the music starts, I love performing. Performing at IIFAs was a dream come true.”
Elli also revealed how she was professional figure skater before she came to Mumbai, learning dance styles like ballet, jazz and even Bollywood.
Manish Paul, who did comic interactions with many guests at IIFA Rocks, was asked by DESIblitz about his favourite: “Salman Khan,” he answered.
“Always so much of fun when you have fun with him. It’s important that when if having fun with a star, he should reciprocate.”
Anil Kapoor talked about how excited he was about the Hindi remake of Red which he is next working on: “It’ll be my most ambitious film yet. Production will start next year.”
The International Indian Film Academy Awards 2016 was another successful show and a spectacular end to a busy weekend of events. DESIblitz looks forward to the star studded event in 2017 wherever in the world it may be!
See more images of the IIFA Awards 2016 in the gallery below:
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