Four meetings and several animated discussions helped a panel of film personalities to choose the winners of the prestigious 18th Annual Colors Screen awards. The grand jury comprised a blend of talented filmmakers like Shekhar Kapur,who was the Hindi jury chairperson,Oscar-winning designer Bhanu Athaiya,John Matthew Matthan,Kunal Kohli,Pradeep Sarkar,Rensil D'Silva and Sanjay Gupta. Despite his hectic travel schedule,Kapur was very much a part of the jury process and discussions through Skype. The nomination for Hindi films followed by the award selection was done by the above seven-member team from the Hindi film fraternity,who watched several movies over a period of five months before coming to a final consensus. The panel members made time from their busy schedules for the Colors Screen awards and watched the films in contention. A collaboration process for final winners were picked after several rounds of discussions. The criteria for selection of the best was not just box-office success but innovative story-telling,high quality content and attention to technical detailing. There were rounds of agreement and disagreements but a good understanding between all of them made it easy for the jury to thoroughly scrutinise nominations in each category and come to a conclusion. The Screen awards,the first award function of the year,also honoured the best works in Marathi cinema through a panel of eminent film personalities,i.e. actor Vijay Kadam,who was the Marathi jury chairperson,producer-director-actor Kishori Shahane Vij and actor Sandeep Kulkarni. They too followed the same process as the Hindi jury members in the selection process. Shekhar Kapur Hindi Jury Chairperson,Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is presently working on Paani,which is being produced by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle. Kapur,who was conferred the Padma Shri in 2000,has directed Elizabeth:The Golden Age,New York,I Love You and the 16-minute short film,Passage and also produced the documentary,Bollywood: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. Prior to that,the actor-filmmaker had directed Bandit Queen,a dramatised biopic on Phoolan Devi,which released in India in 1996. The film marked his entry into the global league and his success was clinched by the 1998 Academy Award-winning period film Elizabeth. In the same year,along with Mani Ratnam and Ram Gopal Varma,he produced Dil Se ,starring Shah Rukh Khan,Manisha Koirala and Preity Zinta. Kapurs destiny and passion led him to films and after a cameo in Dev Anands Ishq Ishq Ishq in 1974,he was introduced as a lead actor by Vijay Anand in Jaan Haazir Hai in 1975. After working with directors like Basu Chatterjee,he made his directorial debut with Masoom in 1983,winning critical acclaim besides commercial endorsement from the audience. His Mr India starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi remains a cult classic. During this phase,he also acted in TV serials like Udaan besides the tele-film Gawaahi with Zeenat Aman and the feature film,Drishti,with Dimple Kapadia.
