If preferential treatment was what you were looking for, then the Global Indian Film Awards (GIFA) awards was where you needed to be on Saturday night. Not only were selected stars treated like royalty, the big ones who attended all walked away with awards.
Bipasha Basu and Hrithik Roshan won Best Actress and Best Actor for Corporate and Krrish, respectively. Kajol, who was expected to win for Fanaa, did not attend. But Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra did attend…and were given ‘consolation’ prizes — they got awards for the ‘Most Searched Stars’ on the Net!
What was funny was that everyone, yes just about everyone, who attended went home with an award, including Katrina Kaif who received the award for Most Beautiful Lips… “Wonder what Mallika Sherawat would’ve got if she attended,” quips a disillusioned but amused invitee.
Then, it’s whispered that Shah Rukh was paid Rs 1.25 crores to host a small segment of the awards that included Best Villain (Saif Ali Khan in Omkara) and Best Actor in a comic role (Tusshar Kapoor in Gol Maal). Tusshar didn’t show up because he was asked to take an indirect flight via another city to Kuala Lumpur. Tusshar opted out, leaving his dad Jeetendra with no choice but to collect his award.
Now about the arrangements. There was a free-for-all sitting arrangement. And as the venue filled up, actors and filmmakers had no choice but to stand awkwardly until chairs were dumped closer and closer to the stage. We thought invitees would soon be sitting on the stage with the performers.
In fact, several invitees were miffed with the security arrangements at the function. A top playback singer says, “None of us were told where to enter and exit from, at the venue. We were looking for the entrance and the local guys were absolutely clueless about what was happening. Due to all this, many of the functions got delayed.”
“You can’t blame Suneil (Shetty, organiser of the show) for this,” says an actress. “It must have been very difficult to gather nearly 270 Bollywood celebrities at the same time and look after them all. Cars went sent to fetch the stars from their hotels and many stars took their own sweet time to get ready for the events. Thus the events would get delayed.”
What’s interesting is that jury numbers of the awards kept away from the function. Apparently they were upset about the various strange categories of awards created to please the big stars. A source reveals that when he called up a jury member, Jackie Shroff, he found Jackie holidaying in Goa, clueless about the event.
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