It was a grand affair last night in Melbourne, Australia as some of the biggest Bollywood stars made their presence at the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards Night. The festival kicked off on 10th of August and witnessed its biggest event last night at the Palais Theatre, one of the oldest and most iconic landmarks of Melbourne. The night witnessed various dance performances, but the highlight was the soulful performance of music composer duo Sachin-Jigar.
'Hichki', 'Sanju' and soon to be released 'Love Sonia' took home the majority of awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Indie Film. The marvellous team of Mahanati took home the Equality in Cinema Award and Freida Pinto was conferred with the award for Diversity in Cinema. The highlight of the night was when Simi Garewal gave away the top honour of the night with a moving speech to Rani Mukerji for Excellence in Cinema Award.
Freida Pinto, who won the Diversity award said, “I feel responsible to be representing the few of my own, my own country in another industry. I think it’s a huge responsibility to create such diversity. And as much as I’m honoured to be given this award, I would like to say it’s not me alone, it’s the writers, the filmmakers, the storytellers who contribute to bring forth such diversity and such diverse roles.”
Richa Chadha, who won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'Love Sonia', said, “Today standing here accepting this award I want to say that without having someone who knows someone and being an outsider, I feel like I have made it. So I feel if I can do it and be an actor, so can you. Just hang in there and if you’re talented things will come to you. I feel elated to win this award. I was one of the last people to come obo board for Love Sonia but I’m so glad I did. It’s an important film and it must be seen by people know of the importance of the topic.”
Rani Mukerji, winner of the Best Actress and Excellence in Cinema awards, said, “Thank you Melbourne and thank you to IFFM. This is my first award after becoming a mother, so it’s very special. And I’m so honoured that such a brilliant jury chose me as the winner. I usually don’t give importance to awards but with Hichki it’s different. We made this film to create awareness and I feel there’s little people know about Tourette’s and I feel by winning this award if people get more curious to discover the film even today it will help the larger idea.”
Here is the complete list of winners:
Best Indie Film: Love Sonia
Best Indie Film Special Mention: Gali Guleiyan (In The Shadows)
Equality in Cinema: Mahanati
Diversity Award: Freida Pinto
Best Actor: Manoj Bajpayee for Gali Guleiyan (In The Shadows)
IFFM Vanguard Award: Ranbir Kapoor for his Breakthrough Performance in Sanju
Best Actress: Rani Mukerji for Hichki
Best film: Sanju
Best Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Best Supporting Performance: Vicky Kaushal for Sanju and Richa Chadha for Love Sonia
Excellence in Cinema: Rani Mukerji
