BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Bollywood's brightest stars and about 2,000 of their enthusiastic fans stayed up into the early hours of Monday in the Thai capital to see the film "Chak De! India," carry off top honors at one of the Indian film industry's glitziest awards ceremonies. "Chak De! India," with an inspirational theme pegged to women's field hockey, won a slew of top awards from the Indian International Film Academy: best director, for Shimit Amin; best actor, for Shah Rukh Khan; best story; and best screenplay shared with "Life in a Metro." The popular and critically acclaimed film's lock on the big awards was broken only by the best actress honors won by Kareena Kapoor for "Jab We Met." As many as 600 million people worldwide had been expected to watch the awards ceremony.
which is staged abroad to promote Indian films to an international audience. The awards were launched in 2000, with earlier ceremonies were held in the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and Singapore.
"It's the biggest celebration of the Indian movie industry." said Sabbas Joseph, director of Wizcraft Entertainment, which helped organize the awards ceremony.
The winning supporting performances both came from "Life in a Metro," with Irrfan Khan carrying off the male honors, and Konkana Sen Sharma taking the prize for the distaff side. Prominent among Sunday night's early winners were Vivek Oberoi, who captured the award for the best performance in a negative role for "Shootout at Lokhandwala," and Govinda, who won for best performance in a comic role for "Partner.
" A. R. Rahman captured the awards for best music direction for "Guru," while Javed Akhtar took the prize for best lyricist for "Om Shanti Om." Shreya Ghoshal who was nominated for four of the five slots in the best female playback singer category won the honors for "Barso Re" from "Guru," while Shaan was named best male playback singer for "Jab Se Tere Naina" from "Saawariya.
" Song and dance number were highlights of the evening and helping heighten anticipation for the naming of the big four awards closing out the night: best actor and actress, best direction, and best movie. Seven films had contended for best picture: "Guru," ''Chak De India," ''Jab We Met," ''Om Shanti Om," ''Life In A Metro," ''Partner," and "Taare Zameen Par.
" "It's not about competition, it is about fraternity," Abhishek Bachchan, a contender for leading actor, said as he entered the awards hall, which was mobbed by fans. Other big names of Bollywood, including Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Zayed Khan and Priyanka Chopra, also paraded down a green carpet, substituting for red in a bid to spread awareness about global warming.
The Mumbai-based Indian film industry, commonly called Bollywood, churns out some 800 Hindi-language movies a year three times Hollywood's production rate. Hundreds more films are produced in southern India.
(Courtesy: Yahoo)
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