Agencies

Atlantic City:

Yash Chopra’s blockbuster ‘Veer-Zaara’, based on a love affair between an Indian man and a Pakistani woman, dominated the annual Bollywood awards here, winning top honours in six categories, including best film, best direction and best actor. A visibly happy Chopra accepted the award for best direction for ‘Veer-Zaara’, which also received the best film award, at the star-studded ceremony at Trump Taj Mahal Casino here on Saturday night.

Shah Rukh Khan, adjudged the best actor, was not present to receive the trophy in person. The highlight of the ceremony was Madan Mohan, who died in 1975, winning the award

for best music in Veer-Zaara. The award was accepted by his grandson. Chopra used

for the movie some of the composer’s unused composition, which were re-recorded under the direction of maestro’s son Sanjeey Kohli.

This was first time that a dead composer’s unused compositions were used for an entire length of a commercial movie which went on to become a superhit.

The award for best story went to Aditya Chopra for ‘Veer-Zaara’ and Manish Malhotra got the top honour for designing costumes in the same movie.

Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan scored a double each. Mukherjee bagged awards for both best actress and best supporting actress for her performances in ‘Hum Tum’ and ‘Yuva’ respectively. Abhishek Bachchan won awards for both best villain and best supporting actor for ‘Yuva’.

The awards are based on polling among Non-Resident Indians, after which an experts committee made the final selection.

Chief executive officer of the awards, Kamal Dondona, said Indian movies were slowly gaining access to mainstream theatres in the US, and in areas dominated by South Asians they are shown regularly.

But he stressed on the need for more effective and innovative captions to win wider audiences. The awards, he said, enabled NRIs to show their preferences.

Heartthrob of yesteryear Shammi Kapoor got huge ovation from the audience when he accepted the Bollywood superstar award. Vyjayantimala, who dominated the sliver screen for years, was given the lifetime achievement award.

A highlight of the awards was Pakistani singer Amir Jamal winning the top honour for best playback singing for ‘Murder’. In the female playback singer category, the award went to Sunidhi Chauhan for ‘Dhoom’.

Gayatri Joshi won award for best debut in female category for her role in ‘Swades’. Akshaye Kapoor was adjudged the best debutant in male category for his performance in ‘Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao’. Aftab Shivdasani got the award for best comedy role in ‘Masti’.

David Hasselhoff, star and executive producer of hit TV series ‘Baywatch’, was given the International Movie Star award. David is the “most watched star,” according to Guinness Book of World Records.