‘Gangubai...’ tops technical awards at 23rd IIFA’s music-loaded opening

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Alia Bhatt-starrer ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ bagged three technical awards at the IIFA Rock night, which marked the beginning of the three-day 23rd edition of the International Indian Film Academy and Awards (IIFA) at Yas Island on Friday night.

The awards the film got were for Cinematography (Sudeep Chatterjee), Screenplay (Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Utkarshini Vashishtha), and Dialogue (Utkarshini Vashishtha and Prakash Kapadia).

‘Gangubai...’ was followed by Anees Bazmee’s horror comedy, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, featuring Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani, which won two awards -- Choreography for Title Track (Bosco Caesar) and Sound Design (Mandar Kulkarni).

Ajay Devgn’s crime thriller ‘Drishyam 2’ received one award -- Editing (Sandeep Francis) -- as did Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s action adventure, ‘Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva’ (Special Effects-Visual, DNEG, Redefine); Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Vikram Vedha’ (Background Score, Sam CS); and ‘Monica O My Darling’, starring Rajkummar Rao, Huma Qureshi and Radhika Apte, for Sound Mixing (Gunjan A. Sah, Boloy Kumar Doloi, and Rahul Karpe).

The awards were announced on an evening of memorable music performances by Amit Trivedi, Badshah, Sunidhi Chauhan, Sukhbir Singh, Palak Muchhal and Iulia Vantur Sobha, presented by choreographer and director Farah Khan and Rajkummar Rao.

The musical spectacle began with a dance performance by Palak Muchhal, followed by Farah Khan, who also danced her way onto the platform. Rajkummar Rao took the stage while playing the song ‘Main Hoon Na’, and the two recreated a scene from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ in which they both greeted the crowd and engaged in a witty conversation about friendship.

Sunidhi Chauhan and Badshah, starring Jacqueline Fernandez, Rakul Preet Singh and Nora Fatehi, gave enthralling performances later in the evening. Amit Trivedi captivated the audience with his lovely voice while performing with Arun Kamat, Devendra Palse, Meghna Mishra and Yashita Sharma. And then everyone began dancing to the dhols thanks to Sukhbir Singh and Iulia Vantur. The evening came to a thrilling conclusion with none other than Nucleya.One of the key highlights of IIFA Rocks was a made-for-the-occasion collection showcased by Manish Malhotra, Bollywood’s favourite designer. It reflected “old world charm meets the new world” and had Salman Khan and Nora Fatehi as the showstoppers for the evening.