Salman’s ‘Dabangg’ sweeps Apsara Awards

Actor Salman Khan’s blockbuster entertainer “Dabangg” made it’s presence felt at the Chevrolet Apsara Awards Tuesday night by bagging eight awards in different categories.

The film that has been produced by Arbaaz Khan and directed by Abhinav Kashyap laid its hands on trophies for categories like best film, best actor (Salman Khan), best female singer (Mamta Sharma), best performance in negative role (Sonu Sood), best female debut (Sonakshi Sinha), best music (Sajid-Wajid), best dialogues (Abhinav Kashyap) and best male singer (Rahat Fateh Ali Khan).

The glitzy night that witnessed power-packed performances by Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Govinda and Anushka Sharma was attended by many Bollywood celebrities like Dharmendra, Rani Mukerji, Sunny Deol, Karan Johar, Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal and Yash Chopra among many others.

The film that followed “Dabangg” in the awards’ tally was “Band Baaja Baraat” with six awards in it’s kitty. It registered it’s name in categories like best editing (Namrata Rao), best art director (T.P Abid and Sonal Choudhry), best costume design (Niharika Khan), best actress (Anushka Sharma), best debut director (Maneesh Sharma) and best male debut (Ranveer Singh).

Apart from these, the evening also announced special awards. A new category called the President honour for outstanding achievement in cinema was conferred on Aiahwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan for their performance in “Guzaarish” and Sanjay Leela Bhansali for directing the film that dealt with the story of a magician who becomes a paraplegic after a magic trick goes wrong.

The lifetime achievement award was given to Dharmendra for completing 50 years in the Hindi film industry. He was handed over the award by Yash Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan.

Other awards announced at the event include:

Best Cinematography – Sudeep Chatterji (Guzaarish) and Santosh Sivan & V. Manikandan (Raavan)

Best Sound Recording – Pritam Das (Love Sex Aur Dhoka)

Best Special Effects – Prime Focus (Guzaarish)

Best Re-recording – Tapan Nayak (Raavan)

Best Lyrics – Gulzar (Ishqiya)

Best Screenplay – Rajat Arora (Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai)

Best Story – Anusha Rizvi (Peepli Live)

Best choreography – Farah Khan (Tees Maar Khan)

Best Comic Performance – Paresh Rawal (Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Arjun Rampal (Raajneeti)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Prachi Desai (Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai)

Best Director – Karan Johar (My Name Is Khan)