Sheershah steals show as Bollywood's Oscars return
Newly weeded Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal won the Best leading male award for his film Sardar Udham while Kriti Sanon won the Best leading female award for her performance in "Mimi"
War movie "Shershaah" bagged both Best Picture and Best Director accolades as Bollywood's Oscars, 22nd International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) returned for the first time since the pandemic and kicked off at Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
"Shershaah", depicting Indian war hero Vikram Batra, who was killed in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan, stoke the show after receiving 12 nods for the first International Indian Film Academy Awards since 2019.
The film stars Siddharth Malhotra as Vikram Batra in the film.
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Addressing the crowd, director Vishnuvardhan said, "I would like to thank the family of Vikram Batra for helping me make this movie."
Bollywood A-listers arrived at the glitzy function in suits and fishtail gowns.
Newly weeded Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal won the Best leading male award for his film "Sardar Udham," a revolutionary revenge drama that settles the score against British officer behind the 1919 Amritsar massacre.
The Best leading female award went to Kriti Sanon for "Mimi," a comedy flick depicting the tale of surrogacy industry and struggles of single mothers. While Sai Tamhankar won best supporting female for the same film.
Pankaj Tripathi won best supporting actor male for his performance in "Ludo."
Ahan Shetty, son of actor Suniel Shetty bagged the best debut male for Tadap while Shavari Wagh won best debut female for "Bunty Aur Babli 2."
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, who hosted the show made a heroic entry in motorbike "We saw that in the last two years the world closed down. Many of us lost our loved ones. Many lost their jobs as well. We faced many difficulties. All of us together overcame the difficulty," Salman told the packed venue.
Maniesh Paul and Riteish Deshmukh also co-hosted the event.
Glamorous stars including Aishwaria Rai Bachchan, Urvashi Rautela along with Emirati royalty such as Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the minister of state for tolerance, graced the ceremony with their presence.
While youngsters of Bollywood including Tiger Shroff, Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Pandey among others delivered powerful performances.
Tiger ripped off his jacket and performed the opening song bare-chested.
