Bollywood Hungama Style Icon awards: When stars on ground equaled those in the skies

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The night was starry outside, but for a change, the stars in the Grand Sangam Ballroom of Mumbai’s J.W. Marriott perhaps equaled them.

On March 24, the first-ever Bollywood Hungama Style Icon Awards were held, anchored splendidly by Maniesh Kaul and Sophie Choudry. The event saw a super- mix of veteran and new celebrities led by the timeless and legendary Bindu and the ageless Anil Kapoor, who both won awards to match their perennially young personae.

Filmmaker Rohit Shetty, Bhushan Kumar, composer Anu Malik, late composer Laxmikant’s singer-daughter Rajeshwari (who accompanied Bindu), publicity ace Yogesh Lakhani, designer Vikram Phadnis, humorist Bhuvan Bam, Ajay Devgn, Bobby Deol, Aditya Roy Kapur, Arjun Kapoor (with Malaika Arora), Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Kartik Aryan, Rajkummar Rao, Karan Kundrra and Vijay Varma were among those present.

The female side also saw Poonam Dhillon, Raveena Tandon Thadani, Anushka Sharma, Tamannaah Bhatia, Sunny Leone (with husband Daniel Weber), Shriya Saran, Elli AvvRam, Vaani Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, Bhumi Pednekar, Janhvi Kapoor, Ananya Panday, Radhika Madan, Rashmika Mandanna, Mouni Roy, Shehnaaz Gill, Tejasswi Prakash and Prajakta Koli.

Among the highlights of the evening, apart from a fashion show by Vikram Phadnis, were the two institutions that won their awards minus any co-nominees: iconic actress Bindu (Most Stylish Timeless Legend) and T-Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar (Most Stylish Showbiz Mogul), a man who has singlehandedly made T-Series the biggest music label in the world and now also the phenomenally prolific production house.

The year also marks the 25^th anniversary of bollywoodhungama.com, which was started as indiafm.com by the Mobhani brothers—Suleman and Saleem Mobhani. In 2008 (when the site won the PC World Web award, one among many distinctions), it was renamed Bollywood Hungama.

After receiving her award from Poonam Dhillon, Bindu stated simply, “I am told that Bollywood Hungama has completed 25 years! But so far as ‘Hungama’ is concerned, I did my own ‘Hungama’ much before!” As Maniesh caught on, and began singing lines from her cult song from Anhonee (1973), the song was also played and on stage, Bindu herself gyrated to it!

Raveena Tandon Thadani excitedly got up from her seat and announced loudly that it was the first-ever “disco” song in Hindi cinema, shot in a discotheque. Her late father, Ravi Tandon, had incidentally directed the film, with music composed by Bindu’s brother-in-law Laxmikant (and Pyarelal).

Three other awards declared without nominees included Most Stylish Eternal Diva – Jury (Raveena Tandon Thadani), Most Stylish Beautiful Winner (Sonali Bendre Behl) and Most Stylish Pop Diva (Sophie Choudry). Sophie was also co-anchor, as already stated.

The ever-young Anil Kapoor annexed the Most Stylish Evergreen Icon trophy among co-nominees Madhuri Dixit Nene, Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt and Juhi Chawla, while Ajay Devgn received his Most Stylish Charismatic Legend (the co-nominees being Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan) from good friend and director of a dozen hit films—Rohit Shetty. Rohit himself won the Most Stylish Filmmaker honor: the two are now collaborating on Singham Again, the third film in their hit franchise.

The bonhomie between the young stars was clearly seen as Kriti Sanon, Sidharth Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur and Ananya Panday shared one table and, later, Rashmika Mandanna also joined them. Arjun Kapoor (Most Stylish Mould Breaking Star—Male) also let the audience on into some juicy info on Anil’s eternal youth and other aspects, even as he cheered Malaika Arora, who won as Most Stylish Entrepreneur. It was a Kapoor family fest with Anil, Arjun and Janhvi Kapoor (Most Stylish Youth Icon—Female) all becoming winners.

Anil Kapoor was also spotted having a chat with Bindu. Laughing aloud at Maniesh Paul’s hilarious anchoring in the audience was composer Salim Merchant. His brother and partner, Sulaiman Merchant, was a presenter earlier and Maniesh had quipped something about “Holi” on sighting his colorful suit!

Maniesh, who clearly had a whale of a time, was in-sync as he danced to the beats of several hit songs, such as Rashmika Mandanna (Most Stylish Pan-India Icon)’s ‘Srivalli’ from Pushpa—The Rise: Part 1 and Kriti Sanon (Most Stylish Actor—Female)’s ‘Param Sundari’ from Mimi. Kriti confessed that she had never thought of herself as stylish, and so thanked all her designers and make-up people for this honor.

While talking about Bobby Deol (Most Stylish OTT Entertainer), Maniesh quipped, “Earlier, babas would reside in ashrams, but now, Bobby’s do!” referring to the actor’s hit web series, Aashram! Maniesh himself won the Most Stylish Breakthrough Talent (Male) award.

The other winners are:

Most Stylish Iconic Performer (Female) Anushka Sharma

Most Stylish Actor (Male) Sidharth Malhotra

Most Stylish Leading Star (Male) Kartik Aaryan

Most Stylish Actor People’s Choice (Male) Aditya Roy Kapur

Most Stylish Actor People’s Choice (Female) Ananya Panday

Most Stylish Youth Icon (Male) Rajkummar Rao

Most Stylish Mould Breaking Star (Female) Vaani Kapoor

Most Stylish Trend Setter (Female) Tamannaah Bhatia

Most Stylish TV Star (Male) Karan Kunddra

Most Stylish Music Personality Neeti Mohan

Most Stylish Fashion Designer Sonakshi Raaj

Most Stylish Digital Entertainer (Female) Prajakta Koli

Most Stylish Digital Entertainer (Male) Bhuvan Bam

Most Stylish Trailblazer Shehnaaz Gill

Most Stylish Social Warrior Bhumi Pednekar

Most Stylish Emerging Icon Vijay Varma

Most Stylish Breakthrough Talent (Female) Radhika Madan

Most Stylish Glam Star Sunny Leone

Most Stylish Haute Stepper Mouni Roy