Big B wins National Award for ‘Paa’

Amitabh Bachchan’s turn as Auro, a child suffering from progeria, in ‘Paa’ has won him his third National Award for Best Actor. And the first person to congratulate him on the triumph was his real-life son and movie dad Abhishek Bachchan.

Abhishek, who played Big B’s father in ‘Paa’ posted on his Twitter page, “I'm a very proud father today!!!!! My son just won the national award for his performance in PAA!!!!!!” He added later, "So excuse me for a while going off to do the monkey dance!!!!! Auro, auro, auro!!!!!!"

And the good wishes started flowing in from the rest of B'wood too.

Bipasha Basu said, "Congratulations to SrBachchan fr the most deserving national award fr PAA. Celebrations!"

Shilpa Shetty added, Well deserved National award, not that you need an award to reiterate your greatness as an actor:)"

And Arshad Warsi posted on Twitter, "Congratulation to the greatest actor this side of the hemisphere... We love you."

Big B had won the Best Actor National Award earlier for 'Agneepath' (1991) and 'Black' (2006). He had also picked up the Best Newcomer National Award for his performance in his debut 'Saat Hindustani' (1970).

So the win for ‘Paa’ makes it Best Actor National Award number three for Amitabh Bachchan, and with this he has caught up with Southern superstars Mammooty and Kamal Hassan who have each won the National Award thrice.

'Paa' also won the Award for Best Feature Film (Hindi) and got Arundhati Nag the award for Best Supporting actress. She played Big B's character's grandma in the movie.

Apart from 'Paa', '3 Idiots' also won big at the National Awards for 2009. The Aamir Khan starrer took home the award for Best Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Best Lyrics for Swanand Kirkire for the song 'Behti hawa sa tha woh'.

List of National Award winners this year:

Best Actor - Amitabh Bachchan for 'Paa'

Best Actress - Ananya Chatterjee for 'Abohoman' (Bengali)

Best Supporting Actor - Farooque Shaikh for 'Lahore'

Best Supporting Actress - Arundhati Nag for 'Paa'

Best Director - Raju Hirani for '3 Idiots' and Rituparno Ghosh for 'Abhoman' (Bengali)

Best Debut Director - Sanjay Puran Singh for 'Lahore'

Best Music: Amit Trivedi for 'Dev D'

Best Lyrics - Swanand Kirkire - 'Behti hawa sa tha woh' from '3 Idiots'

Best Producer - Vidhu Vinod Chopra for '3 Idiots'

Best Feature Film (Hindi) - 'Paa'

Best Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment - '3 Idiots'

Best Film on Social Issues - 'Well Done Abba'

Best National Integration Film - 'Delhi 6'

Best Feature Film (Marathi) – 'Natarang'

Best Feature Film (Bengali) - 'Abohoman'

Best Feature Film (Overall) - 'Kutty Srank' (Malayalam)

Best Special Effects - Kamal Kannan for Magadheera

(Telugu)

Best Child Artists - Jiva, Anba Karasu for 'Pasanga' (Tamil)

Best Kids Film - Ottani Pati and Keshu

Special Jury Award - Editor Sreekar Prasad

Aamir plans visit to 3 Idiots school in Leh

Aamir Khan was "shocked" and "distressed" to hear about the damage to the Druk Pema school, also known as Druk White Lotus school, in Leh after a sudden cloudburst last week. Now he plans to visit the institution.

"Very shocked and distressed to hear about the school we shot in Leh for 3 Idiots. Trying to get in touch with the principal. I suppose the communications are down too," Aamir had posted on his Facebook page Monday.

The actor found out through his journalist friend that "there were no casualties in the school".

"It is a big relief. I should be able to make contact with principal. Fingers crossed," he wrote.

The school became popular after being shown in the last few scenes of 3 Idiots. It is situated approximately 15 km from Leh on the Leh-Manali highway.

"Just spoke with Mr.Prasad, the principal at the school in Leh. Big relief after speaking with him. (I) am trying to go there," posted Aamir Tuesday.

For now, the actor, who has been advised rest, is awaiting the release of his production Peepli Live, directed by debutant Anusha Rizvi.

The film will hit screens Friday.

'3 Idiots' breaks another record: TV premiere was the most watched in the last two years

After taking the Bollywood box office by storm, Aamir Khan-starrer '3 Idiots' brought record television viewer ratings (TVRs) for Sony Entertainment channel when it was telecast last month.

The film, aired July 25, got 10.9 TVRs, catapulting the channel to the third position of Hindi general entertainment channels in India with 270 gross rating points, a statement from the channel said.

"As a company, we are committed to bringing the biggest and the best properties for our viewers. '3 Idiots' is a continuation of our commitment to this vision and we are delighted with the performance of the premiere telecast on Sony Entertainment Television," said Manjit Singh, CEO Multi Screen Media, of which Sony Entertainment Television is a part.

N.P. Singh, Multi Screen Media COO, said: "I am delighted with the rating of 10.9 TVRs which broke all previous records and made it the most watched television property of the last two years."

'3 Idiots' sweeps IIFA Awards

Kareena, Vidya share best actress honours

'3 Idiots' that created history by becoming one of the most successful films in Hindi cinema walked away with 11 trophies at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards that concluded in Colombo with a flourish early on June 6, being declared the Best Film, while the Best Director award went to Rajkumar Hirani and the Best Actress award to Kareena Kapoor for the same movie.

Kareena shared the award with Vidya Balan, who was honoured for perfectly portraying the role in 'Paa' of a single mother whose son is suffering from progeria.

Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood's affable Munnabhai, walked away with the Best Comic Actor trophy for his rib-tickling performance in 'All The Best', while Boman Irani received the Best Actor in A Negative Role honour for his brilliant portrayal of an eccentric professor in '3 Idiots'.

Sharman Joshi, who played Aamir Khan's friend in '3 Idiots', won the Best Supporting Actor award, while Divya Dutta received Best Supporting Actress honour for her performance in 'Delhi 6'.

In the special award category, well-known Hindi filmmaker J. Omprakash and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan's maternal grandfather, who made films like 'Aap Ki Kasam' (1974) , 'Aasha' (1980) and 'Aas Paas' (1981), was honoured for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

Versatile actor Anil Kapoor, who made his mark in the international arena with British filmmaker Danny Boyle's multiple award winning rags-to-riches drama 'Slumdog Millionaire', was honoured for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema. And yesteryears glamour girl Zeenat Aman was honoured for Outstanding Achievement in Indian Cinema.

While Bollywood heart throb Salman Khan was given the Habitat for Humanity award, his not-so-good friend Vivek Oberoi, who has been in the news for all the wrong reasongs ever since he arrived for the IIFA awards, was honoured with the Panasonic Global Green award.

Pritam Chakraborty won the Best Music Director Award for composing lilting numbers for 'Love Aaj Kal' and Swanand Kirkire bagged the Best Lyrics Award for the super-hit movie '3 Idiots'.

In the playback singing category, the Best Female Playback Singer award went to Kavita Seth for crooning 'Ik tara' in 'Wake Up Sid' and the Best Male Playback Singer Award went to Shaan for the hit number 'Behti hawa sa thaa wo' in '3 Idiots'.

Sri Lankan actress Jacqueline Fernandez, who made her Bollywood debut with 'Aladin', was declared Star Plus Debut of the Year (Female). Apart from Jacqueline, Mahi Gill, who played the modern age Paro in Anurag Kashap's new interpretation of 'Devdas' titled "Dev D", too bagged the Star Plus Debut of the Year (Female) award.

'3 Idiots' fame Omi Vadiya, who had people rolling in the aisles with his antics in the super-hit movie, received the Star Plus Debut of the Year (Male) award along with Jackie Bhagnani - the young actor who made his debut with the not-so-successful movie 'Kal Kissne Dekha'.

Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra received the Best Story Award for penning the interesting tale of '3 Idiots'.

'3 Idiots' baggged the maximum technical awards. The film won the Best Sound Recording Award for Nihar Ranjan Samal and Sachin K. Sanghvi. The Best Sound Re-recording went to Anup Dev, the Best Song Recording Award went to Sachin K. Sanghvi, the Best Background Score Award went to Sanjay Wandrekar, Atul Raninga and Shantanu Moitra, while C.K. Muraleedharan received the Best Cinematography Award for '3 Idiots'.

Bosco Caesar won the Best Choreography Award for directing popular dance moves in 'Love Aaj Kal', the Best Costume Design Awrard went to Anahita Shroff and Dolly Ahluwalia for the same film, which had Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles.

Sabu Cyril won the Best Art Direction Award and Charles Darby won Best Special Effects (Visual) Award for Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Aladin'.

For designing mindblowing action sequecnes in the crime thriller 'Kaminey', Shyam Kaushal was honoured with the Best Action Award and the Best Makeup Award went to the international make-up artists Christien Tinsley & Dominie Till for giving a progeria patient look to Amitabh in 'Paa'.