Its that time of the year again in Bollywood,and the season for awards begins Wednesday. On January 14,at Mumbais sprawling MMRDA Grounds,the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards will honour the best of Indian cinema in 2008. Being nominated is a very nice way to start the New Year and I am very thrilled, said Shah Rukh Khan,nominated for Best Actor for 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi'. The list of nominations mixes oodles of glamour with some great cinema. In the race are 'A Wednesday','Ghajini','JaaneTu. Ya Jaane Na','Jodhaa Akbar','Rock On!!' and 'Sarkar Raj',all nominated for both Best Film and Best Director. The hugely impressive 'A Wednesday' demonstrated how much power small-budget productions can pack,while 'Jodhaa Akbar' re-drew Bollywoods limits of magnificent scale. 'JaaneTu. ' and 'Rock On!!' radiated youthful energy,and action and drama scaled new heights with 'Ghajini' and 'Sarkar Raj' respectively. Said Abhishek Kapoor,nominated for Best Director for 'Rock On!!',Im elated to be nominated. It was an out-of-the-box film about rock musicians and their aspirations. More out-of-the-box movies at the awards are 'Aamir' (4 nominations) and 'Mumbai Meri Jaan' (3 nominations). Competing for Best Actor (Female) are Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Jodhaa Akbar),Asin (Ghajini),Genelia DSouza (Jaane Tu.),Kajol (U,Me Aur Hum) and Priyanka Chopra (Fashion). In the race for Best Actor (Male) with Shah Rukh (Rab Ne) are Aamir Khan (Ghajini),Abhishek Bachchan (Dostana),Akshay Kumar (Singh Is Kinng),Amitabh Bachchan (Sarkar Raj),Hrithik Roshan (Jodhaa Akbar),Naseeruddin Shah (A Wednesday) and Ranbir Kapoor (Bachna Ae Haseeno). Abhishek has also been nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Sarkar Raj). I am truly excited that my work has been recognised and I am looking forward to the Awards function, he said. A R Rahman,who became the first Indian to win a Golden Globe for the soundtrack of 'Slumdog Millionaire' in Los Angeles on Sunday night,has three Star Screen Awards nominations: Best Background Music and Best Playback Singer (Jodhaa Akbar) and Best Music (Jaane Tu.).The presentation of the Awards statuettes will be interspersed with performances by Deepika Padukone,Bipasha Basu,Katrina Kaif,Anushka Sharma and Priyanka Chopra. Sajid Khan and Shreyas Talpade will be the hosts for the night,with entertaining inputs from Akshay Kumar. The Star Screen Awards have a formidable reputation for being Indias most unbiased cinema honours. The highly respected jury of Amol Palekar,Farida Jalal,Rajkumar Hirani,Shyam Shroff,Sujoy Ghosh and Uday Singh will be headed by Ramesh Sippy. Let the show begin!
