‘Black’ does a whitewash at Zee Cine Awards

It literally rained Black in picturesque Mauritius. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film did the trick again, winning the Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director slots at the Zee Cine Awards held at Swami Vivekananda International Convention Center in Mauritius.

Though Black won all the popular awards, the Critics’ Choice award went to Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal, which was adjudged Best Film in the category, with Shreyas Talpade and Shweta Prasad winning Best Actor and Best Actress trophies.

The event, one of the most star-studded award shows of recent times, included performances by Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal and Shah Rukh Khan. Smita Thackeray, Subhash Ghai, Sridevi, Neetu Singh, Poonam Dhillon, Dia Mirza, and others added to the glam quotient.

Crowds braved the tumultuous weather in cyclone-hit Mauritius for the LIC Zee Cine Awards. With entry passes going at a premium, there were serpentine queues outside the auditorium, with people lining up to get a glimpse of the stars.

The show honoured the gorgeous Rekha and eternal lover-boy Rishi Kapoor with  Lifetime Achievement Awards. A visibly emotional Kapoor thanked the audience for the award coinciding with Prithviraj Kapoor’s birth centenary.

‘King Khan’ stole the show with his straight-from-the-heart retrospective of Yashraj Films and Yash Chopra in particular, while Akshay Kumar wowed the crowd with his daredevil stunts.

The other award-winners included Nana Patekar for his villainous act in Apaharan, Riteish Deshmukh for Best Supporting Actor in Bluffmaster, Himesh Reshammiya for Best Playback singer in Aashiq Banaya Aapne, Vaibhavi Merchant as Best Choreographer for ‘Kajra re..’ and Rekha Nigam and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for Best Dialogue in Parineeta.

Though Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan did not attend the show, Abhishek won the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar.

Karan Johar did a great job as host of the show, attended by Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.The hoi polloi of Mauritius gave the show a thumbs-up. “Earlier, Indian stars would just shoot in Mauritius. But to see them receive awards here means a lot to us,” said Pritam Hussain, who’d been saving money for three months to watch the show.