IFFM Award winners announced

 



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Amitabh taking a selfie with fans

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While the IFFA Awards reached their 15th year milestone and celebrated the Bollywood phenomenon with a star studded performance at Tampa Bay, United States in April, Australia witnessed its own Bollywood gala extravaganza down under as month of May set in. The former brand ambassador of IFFA, superstar Amitabh Bachchan was rather pulled or shall we say sucked in the great gravitational energy and pull which brought him to Melbourne at Mind Blowing Films and Victorian Government initiative  the Indian Film Festival Melbourne 2014 (IFFM). He was awarded with the inaugural International Screen Icon Award by the IFFM. With the stage jazzed up with the likes of Queen Kangna Ranaut, actress Simi Grewal, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Malaika Arora Khan, great Amitabh Bachchan could not help but take a selfie with the Melbourne audience that came all dressed up for the occasion. They say whatever Amitabh touches it turns into gold well the IFFM did scale its own height and honoured movies such as Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Queen. Pity that IFFA missed out on of the Bollywood glitter as some of it was here in Melbourne doing its own Bollywood entertainment to the delight of all who attended as Amitabh sang, recited dialogues from his movies and returned his love when the audience kept on shouting ”˜We love you Amitabh”¦” and  he replied back “I love you, too.”

 

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Premier Ted Baillieu and his wife  with Kangna

 

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Amitabh with Rangoli and Kangna Ranaut

IFFM announced the winners of the inaugural IFFM Awards, at a sold out gala event at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre on Friday 2 May with Amitabh Bachchan, patriarch of Indian cinema, a very special guest was recognised with the IFFM International Screen Icon Award. Sports biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, dominated the evening, taking out every award for which it was nominated – Best Film, Western Union Best Director and Best Actor (Male) for Farhan Akhtar. The film, which follows the life of one of India’s greatest living athletes and Olympian, Milkha “The Flying Sikh” Singh, stars Australian actress Rebecca Breeds. International co-production The Lunchbox, directed by Ritesh Batra, won Best Indie Film and Best Actor for Irrfan Khan (shared with Farhan Akhtar, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag).The Lunch Box is Ritesh Batra’s debut feature and will premiere at IFFM on Saturday 10 May, and be released nationally in July.

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Vijay Krishnacharya with family

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Simi Grewal greeted with Melbourne dhols

Kangana Ranaut won Best Actor (Female) for her role in Queen and director Anand Gandhi was given a Special Jury Commendation for Ship of Theseus. The Telstra People’s Choice Prize for the Indian film with the highest Australian box office takings in 2013 went to action film Dhoom 3, directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, which is the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time both domestically and worldwide. The awards were judged by a panel of leading Australian and Indian film figures including Phillip Noyce, Rajkumar Hirani, Suhasini Maniratnam, Jill Bilcock, Simi Garewal and Rajeev Masand.

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Parwyn Kaur Singh of Bombay  Royale band

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Melbourne girls dressed up a la  Bollywood

Directors Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ritesh Batra and Vijay Krishna Acharya; and actors Farhan Akhtar and Kangana Ranaut were in attendance at the gala to collect their awards.

Indian film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2014 Winners are:    Best Actor Male: Farhan Akhtar – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Irrfan Khan –The Lunchbox;  Best Actor Female: Kangana Ranaut ”“Queen;  Best Film: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag;  Best Indie Film: The Lunchbox;  Western Union Best Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag;  Special Jury Commendation: Anand Gandhi – Ship of Theseus;  IFFM International Screen Icon: Amitabh Bachchan and Telstra People’s Choice Award: Dhoom 3

 

 (Photos by Scott Barbour/Getty Images for IFFM)

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