Thaindian News

Toronto, June 25 (IANS) Maneesh Sharma’s ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ won three IIFA awards Friday night as Sonu Nigam joined Jermaine Jackson, elder brother of the late Michael Jackson, to pay a moving musical tribute to the legend at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards here.

In fact, Nigam’s ‘Thank you for the legacy’ on the second death anniversary of the ‘King of Pop’ set the stage for the IIFA Rocks show in the city’s ultra-modern Ricoh Coliseum, jampacked with more than 25,000 people.

“I want to say how much I love you, because I see Michael in each one of you,” said Jermaine, the former Jackson 5 singer, as he ended the soulful song with Nigam.

Nigam said he wrote the song after the death of the legend, and thanked Jermaine for joining him in singing it just a day before the second anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death.

“Insha Allah, hopefully very soon,” said Jackson earlier on the green carpet when asked whether he would ever perform in Bollywood.

Friday night’s IIFA Rocks music-cum-fashion show lived up to its hype as virtually the whole of Bollywood, including Shah Rukh Khan, descended on the Coliseum to entertain Toronto.

The four-hour-long IIFA Rocks show - conducted by Karan Johar and Anushka Sharma - unleashed a fusion of music, fashion and dance as awards were announced in various categories.

Dia Mirza cast her spell with her stunning dance medley of hit numbers such as ‘Pyar Do, Pyar Lo,’ ‘Parda Hai Parda,’ and ‘Aapka Kya Hoga.’

Mallika Sherawat gave a performance of ‘Arabian Nights.’

Sonu Nogam returned to the stage to wow the audience with his ‘cocktail of qawwali and rock’. The Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy musical trio carried the night show through.

Namrata Rao won the IIFA award for editing, Naharika Khan for costume and Vijay Dayal for best song ‘Ainvayi ainvayi’ in ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’.

Pritam Das for best sound recording in ‘Love, Sex aur Dhokha’, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for background score in ‘My Name in Khan’, Leslie Fernandes for re-recording in ‘Dabanng’, and Sudeep Chatterjee for cinematography in ‘Guzaarish’.

Sabu Cyril won the award for art direction in ‘Robot’, which also won the IIFA awards for special effects and make-up.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)