Bollywood’s best to vie for Screen-Videocon awards

The final selection for awards from among the nominees is expected to be a real test for the jury headed by famed filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee since vying for the Best Film award are the likes of Border, Chachi 420, Mrityudand, Pardes and Virasat, while their directors, J P Dutta, Kamal Haasan, Prakash Jha, Subhash Ghai and Priyadarshan respectively are competing for the Best Director’s award.

The other members of the jury are Bollywood biggies such as Ramesh Sippy, Padmini Kolhapure, Aruna Raje, Sadhana Nayyer, Ramesh Talwar, Khayyam, M S Shinde, Kundan Shah, A K Bir and Bhimsain.

Aamir Khan, winner of the Best Actor award last year for Raja Hindustani, has been nominated again for Ishq. He faces stiff competition from Anil Kapoor (Virasat), Govinda (Deewana Mastana), Kamal Haasan (Chachi 420) and Shah Rukh Khan (Dil To Pagal Hai).

And competing for Best Actress are Juhi Chawla in her comeback film Yes Boss, Madhuri Dixit (Mrityudand), Rekha (Aastha), Sridevi for her swan-song Judaai and Tabu (Virasat).

Nominees for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role include Amrish Puri (Virasat), Om Puri (Gupt), Paresh Rawal (Chachi 420), Sayaji Shinde (Darmiyaan), Shivaji Satam (Ghulam-e-Mustafa). Aruna Irani (Ghulam-e-Mustafa), Karisma Kapoor (Dil To Pagal Hai), newcomer Pooja Batra (Virasat), Shabana Azmi (Mrityudand) and Smriti Mishra (Sardari Begum) have been nominated in the Best Actress in Supporting Role category.

Deepa Sahi (Aar Ya Paar), Jackie Shroff (Aar Ya Paar, Milind Gunaji (Virasat), Mohan Joshi (Mrityudand) and Mohan Joshi again (Yeshwant) will vie for Best Performance in a Negative Role.

The Best Music director category could possibly prove to be the toughest choice for the judges — as each of the nominees has a strong case. Anu Malik (Border and Virasat), Jatin-Lalit (Yes Boss), last year’s winners Nadeem-Shravan (Pardes) and Uttam Singh (Dil To Pagal Hai) have won nominations for this award.

The Best Male Playback singer category has Abhijeet (Mai koi aisa … Yes Boss), Hariharan (Hum Tumse…Ziddi), Kumar Sanu (Do dil mil rahe…Pardes), Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonu Nigam (Sandese aate hain…Border) and Udit Narayan (Dil To Pagal Hai…Title Song) competing for the award.

While among female playback singers the nominees are Alka Yagnik (Tanhai…Koyla), Asha Bhosle (Le gayee…Dil To Pagal Hai), Chitra (Payalen…Virasat), Kavita Krishnamurty (Ankhiyaan…Ishq) and Shweta Shetty (Ore ore…Ziddi). Lyricists Anand Bakshi and Javed Akhtar have been nominated for two songs each — (Do dil…Pardes and Yeh mera India…Pardes) and (Sandese aate…Border and Main koi aisa geet…Yes Boss). The other nominee is Gulzar for Labon se choomlo…Aastha. The nominees for the Best Story are J P Dutta (Border), Kamal Haasan (Chachi 420) and Sahiwal (Mrityudand). And for Best Screenplay, the competition is between J P Dutta (Border), Kamal Haasan (Virasat) and Prakash Jah, Rajan Kothari, Anil Ajitabh (Mrityudand).

Hridayalani (Yeshwant), O P Dutta (Border) and Sanjay Chhel (Yes Boss) have been nominated for the Best Dialogue category.

For the Best Cinematographer award, the nominees are Kabir Lal (Pardes), Ravi K Chandran (Virasat) and Manmohan Singh (Dil To Pagal Hai).

In theMost Promising Newcomer (Male) category, teenage heartthrob Akshaye Khanna (Himalayputra) takes on Apoorva Agnihotri (Pardes) and Arif Zakaria (Darmiyaan). But there is even tougher competition between Aishwarya Rai (Aur Pyar Ho Gaya), Mahima Choudhary (Pardes) and Pooja Batra (Virasat) for the Most Promising Newcomer (Female) award.