The 18th edition of the International Indian Film Academy awards ended on a high with Udta Punjab winning four awards on Saturday night. Neerja and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil won three awards each.
Over 40,000 people cheered for their favourite Bollywood stars as they walked the IIFA Green Carpet ahead of the awards ceremony at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The hosts for the evening, Karan Johar and Saif Ali Khan, kept the audience in splits with great repartee and witty conversations with fellow Bollywood celebrities.
Alia Bhatt’s debut in IIFA saw her performing to a medley of hit songs from her movies. Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon wooed the audience with their crackling chemistry as they jived to retro tracks.
Katrina Kaif caused a storm on stage with her pulsating performance and Salman Khan danced away to songs from Tubelight .
Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt walked away with the Best Actor awards for their film Udta Punjab . The Best Direction award went to Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury for Pink and Neerja won the award for Best Film. In a special category, Taapsee Pannu won the Woman of the Year award for Pink .
The Best Performance in a Negative Role title went to Jim Sarbh for Neerja . Shakun Batra and Ayesha DeVitre won the award for the Best Story for Kapoor & Sons .
Best music
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil dominated the music categories. Pritam took home the Best Music Director honour, the Best Playback Singer (Male) award was taken by Amit Mishra and Amitabh Bhattacharya won the Best Lyricist prize. Tulsi Kumar and Kanika Kapoor shared the Best Playback Singer (Female) honour for Airlift and Udta Punjab respectively.
Varun Dhawan’s performance in Dishoom earned him the title of Best Actor in a Comic Role. Disha Patani won the Best Debut (Female) award for MS Dhoni: The Untold Story and Diljit Dosanjh took the Best Debut (Male) for Udta Punjab .
Shabani Azmi’s performance in Neerja and Anupam Kher’s work in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story earned them the Best Supporting Actor awards.
(The writer was in New York on an invitation from the IIFA)
