IIFA New York: wet start, before it really ‘rocked’ on Saturday

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NEW YORK – IIFA New York got off to a wet start on Friday night, with rain marring a musical tribute to celebrate maestro A R Rahman’s 25 years in the industry, but ended on a strong note on Saturday with some 20,000 plus fans gathered at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to watch the Awards show.

On a rainy and cold Friday night, hosts Manish Paul and Riteish Deshmukh entertained a crowd of around 10,000 at MetLife Stadium. The ceremonial ‘Green’ Carpet was canceled because of the inclement weather.

The show opened up with a musical tribute to Salman Khan by Kamaal Khan who sang some of his latest hits, including “Naach Meri Jaan” from Tubelight and “Jag Ghoomeya” from Sultan.

Punjabi actor and singer Diljit Dosanjh opened up his act on his hit number “Do You Know” continuing on with another recent hit “Move Your Lakk” from Noor, ending with “Ikk Kudi” from Udta Punjab.

Paul and Deshmukh also performed an act on Bahubali versus Laxman from Tubelight and lightened up the mood as they promoted Akshay Kumar’s upcoming film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha with a special toilet act.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil took home four technical awards, including Background Score, Best Engineer, Cinematography and Costume Designing and Pink won three awards in the technical category including Best Dialogue, Best Screenplay and Editing.

The Best Action and Sound Mixing awards were given to Sultan; Adil Shaikh received the award for Best Choreography for the song Kar Gayi Chull from Kapoor & Sons; Mirzya took home the award for Best Sound Design, Fan took home the awards for Best Makeup and Special Effects Visual and Neerja won the award for Best Production Design.

The Myntra Style Icon Award was given to Alia Bhatt.

Jonita Gandhi opened up A.R. Rahman’s concert, the most awaited performance of the evening, with the song “Choti Si Asha” from Roja after which Rahman himself sang “Enna Sona” from OK Jaanu.

Gandhi then again relaxed the audience while she performed with Haricharan Seshadri and Kailash Kher sang “Mangal Mangal” from Mangal Pandey in his devotional voice. Seshadri and Kher then continued on with “Yun Hi Chala” from Swades.

Aditi Rao Hydari came next to mesmerize the audience with her sweet and soothing voice. Gandhi and Seshadri again came to sing the hit number from last year’s “Agar Tum Saath Ho” from Tamasha after which Hariharan embraced the stage with his classic “Tu Hi Re” from Bombay.

He continued with “Nahin Saamne” from Taal and “Aye Hairathe” and “Tere Bina” from Guru where he was joined by Gandhi yet again; Benny Dayal along with Neeti Mohan sang “Kaise Mujhe Tum Mil Gayi” from Ghajini and they continued on with “Tu Meri Dost Hai” from Yuvraaj after which Mika Singh came on stage to sing “Heer Toh Badi Sad Hai” from Tamasha.

Other songs that were sung included “Maiyya Maiyya” from Guru, “Tanha Tanha” and “Yaayi Re” from Rangeela and “Sachin.”

The show ended with Rahman’s super hit chart buster song “Humma Humma” sung by all artists present including Mohit Chauhan and Javed Ali, who sang a number of their songs composed by Rahman.

On Saturday, several stars and celebrities walked the ‘Green’ Carpet: including, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Boman Irani, Anil Kapoor, Divya Khosla Kumar, Suneil Shetty, Tulsi Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Armaan Malik, Hariharan, Kailash Kher, Gulshan Grover, Nawazuddin Sidiqui, Zayed Khan, Rajat Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Suchitra Pillai, Diljit Dosanjh, Anupam Kher, Disha Patani, Manish Malhotra, Sonu Sood, Diya Mirza, Kanika Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Shabana Azmi, Kabir Khan, Mini Mathur, Abhay Deol, Taapsee Pannu, Riteish Deshmukh, Neha Dhupia, Shahid Kapoor, Mira Rajput, Varun Dhawan, Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty, A.R. Rahman, Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh Grover, Karan Wahi, Alia Bhatt, Preity Zinta, Jacky Bhagnani, DJ Bravo, Benny Dayal, Jonita Gandhi, Nargis Fakhri, Richa Chadda, and Manish Paul.

The night started off with a warm welcome from hosts Karan Johar and Saif Ali Khan who invited on stage a Donald Trump-look alike Ronald Drump who was happy because Bollywood had solved his biggest mystery “Katapa ne Bahubali ko kyun maara” and he exited the stage singing “Mere Desh Ki Dharthi” from Upkar.

Alia Bhatt warmed up the crowd with her debut performance at IIFA with her party songs “Let’s Nacho,” “Kar Gayi Chull” and “Saturday Saturday” along with doing some Desi thumkas on “Badri Ki Dulhania” with Varun Dhawan who she spotted in the audience and “Radha” from her first film Student of the Year.

Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon took everyone down memory lane with their performance to yesteryear Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh songs “Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyar Tera,” “Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja” and “Badan Pe Sitare” along with their own songs “Paas Aao” and “Main Tera Boyfriend.”

Varun Dhawan, Saif Ali Khan and Karan Johar revisited the issue of nepotism in the industry, a subject broached in the recent past by Kangana Ranaut, who was not present.

“I think you are here because of your papa” said Saif Ali Khan to Varun Dhawan who got back at him saying “but you are here because of your mumma” to which Karan Johar said “I am here because of my papa.”

Varun Dhawan then performed to some of his father’s songs, David Dhawan, giving his “hero jinke aage main zero” a tribute for completing 30 years in the industry.

“I just want to say that this is really, really emotional for me, my dad was supposed to be here today,” he said.

“After so many years he is directing a film with me called Judwaa 2, which means the world for me. You know as we get older, our parents get older. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We don’t know if they are going to be there, not be there,” he added breathlessly.

“So just cherish every moment you have with your parents because if they are not there, we are not there,” he advised the audience.

Dhawan also won the award for Best Actor in a Comic Role for Dishoom which was directed by his brother Rohit Dhawan who studied filmmaking at New York University, thus winning this particular award in New York was a big deal for him and he dedicated it to his brother.

Later, Katrina Kaif sizzled the stage with her performance to her most recent song “Galti Se Mistake” from Jagga Jasoos. She also performed on “Afghan Jalebi” from Phantom and number one hit song from last year “Kala Chashma” from Baar Baar Dekho.

Shahid Kapoor was next in line to perform to his songs “Gandi Baat” and “Saree Ke Fall” from R Rajkumar along with “Dan Tan Na” from Kaminey and “Bismil” from Haider, for which he danced in MJ style.

In between performances, Karan Johar and Saif Ali Khan entertained the audience with their comical punch lines at the beginning of each award presentation and also hosted a Best Dressed competition stating that Bollywood and Style go hand in hand.

Salman Khan sang “Jag Ghoomeya” and “Naach Meri Jaan” live for everyone and went onto performing on “The Radio Song,” “Jumme Ki Raat,” “Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai,” “Masha Allah” and obviously “Jag Ghoomeya.”

Dhawan also joined the Bhaijaan of Bollywood on a special performance of “Tan Tana Tan” from the film Judwaa, which will be recreated in Judwaa 2; the song along with its iconic dance move were performed by both superstars four times in a row and then again three more times in a row; Varun Dhawan wanted to do it an eighth time but Salman Khan shooed him away comically off stage.

“As a child I had seen Salman bhai perform live many times but I had never dreamt that one day I would dance beside him,” Varun Dhawan said on social media.

Even though Neerja won Best Film, it seemed like Udta Punjab was the film of the evening as both Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt won Best Actor in a Leading Male and Female roles for it with Diljit Dosanjh winning the Best Debut Male award for it.

A.R. Rahman received an award for his completion of 25 years in the industry, Taapsee Pannu won the award for Woman of the Year and all performances included background dancers from Arya Dance Academy, who had been promoting the IIFA for the past four months.

Complete List of IIFA Award 2017 Winners:

Best Film: Neerja
Best Actor in a Leading Role Female: Alia Bhatt; Udta Punjab
Best Actor in a Leading Role Male: Shahid Kapoor; Udta Punjab
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Female: Shabana Azmi; Neerja
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Male: Anupam Kher; M.S. Dhoni
Best Debut Female: Disha Patani; M.S. Dhoni
Best Debut Male: Diljit Dosanjh; Udta Punjab
Best Performance in a Comic Role: Varun Dhawan; Dishoom
Best Performance in a Negative Role: Jim Sarbh; Neerja
Best Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury; Pink
Best Story: Ayesha Devitre Dhillon and Shakun Batra; Kapoor & Sons
Best Playback Singer Female: Kanika Kapoor; Da Da Dasse – Udta Punjab, Tulsi Kumar; Soch Na Sake – Airlift
Best Playback Singer Male: Amit Mishra; Bulleya – Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Best Music Director: Pritam; Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Best Lyricist: Amitabh Bhattacharya; Channa Mereya – Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Woman of the Year: Taapsee Pannu
Myntra Style Icon: Alia Bhatt