Thaindian News

Toronto, June 26 (IANS) “Dabangg” bagged five awards at the 12th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards here Saturday night.

Ranvir Singh won the award for debut male actor for his role in “Band Baaja Baaraat”.

Accepting the award from Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, the young actor said: “It is special to me as the award is presented by my idol. (But) it is just the beginning.”

Sonakshi Sinha bagged the debut female award for her role in “Dabangg”.

Presenting her the award, Hema Malini said: “I saw this girl and never thought she will become an actress.”

A beaming Sonakshi said: “Toronto, itna pyar. Thanks for giving me the gift of IIFA. I will cherish it forever.”

Mamta Sharma won the award for best female playback singer for her song “Munni Badnaam” in “Dabangg”.

“I love you so much… Lalitji I love you so much… Shah Rukh I love you much… Toronto I love you so much,” said Mamta as Arshad Warsi handed her the award in the company of show co-hosts Boman Irani and Ritesh Deshmukh as well as Shah Rukh Khan.

The award for best male playback singer went to Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for “Tere Mast Mast Do Nain” from “Dabangg”.

For best lyrics, the award went to Niranjan Iyengar for “Sajda’ and “Noor-e-Khuda” in “My Name is Khan”. The award was accepted by Karan Johar on his behalf.

For music direction, the award went to Sajid-Wajid and Lalit Pandit for “Dabangg”.

The award for best story went to Shibani Bathija for “My Name is Khan”, presented by Brett Lee, Fardeen Khan, Sajid Nadiadwala.

The award for best screenplay went to Abhinav Kahsyap and Dileep Shukla for “Dabangg”. It was presented by Zeenat Aman, Prakash Mehra and Sant Singh Chatwal.

The IIFA award for best dialogue went to Vishal Bharadwaj for “Ishqiya”.

The Outstanding Achievement Award went to Sharmila Tagore.

Presenting her the award, Shabana Azmi said: “I am honoured to present this award to an actress for whom I have the highest regard - a path-breaker, achiever, a person who has been successful in every avatar she has chosen.”

Dharmendra got the award for his half-century in Indian cinema.

Sharmilla Tagore said the award was “such a satisfying thing. It’s fantastic. After Dharamji (who was honoured just before her), it is a tough act to follow”.

She recalled Dharmendra’s large heartedness when he agreed to a change of schedule for the shooting of a film when she had to “rush to Calcutta for personal reasons as Tiger (her husband) was in the West Indies”.

For the first time at the IIFA, Star Plus channel presented the Hottest Pair award to Anushka Sharma and Ranvir Singh for which 15 million votes were cast online.

“Anushka, you make feel hot,” said Ranvir, accepting the award in her company.

The first Green IIFA Award by Panasonic went to actress Priyanka Chopra.

(Gurmukh Singh and Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in and radhika.b@ians.in respectively)