Tollywood’s hero no. 1 Prosenjit handed over the Best Actress (Hindi films) award to Bipasha Basu for Corporate. While Bipasha didn’t go up on stage to accept John Abraham’s award for Most Promising Star, she did seem delighted to be honoured in her home town. “Ekhane eshe khub bhalo lagchhe,” smiled Bips. Prosenjit himself won the Best Actor (Bengali films) award for Dosar after his song-and-dance tribute to 75 years of playback in Tollywood

Shveta Salve and Eijaz Khan flew in from Mumbai to stage a homage to Bollywood music directors. Dancing to songs from Awara hoon to Raat baki to Kajra re, the duo came up with a spirited shake-a-leg. The finalists of Fairever Nayikar Khonje, a talent hunt conducted by Anandalok to find a new face for Bengali films, gave a lively performance too, with winner Subhashree.

The petite beauty Amrita Rao spoke bits of Bengali as she received the Most Promising Actress trophy for Vivah.

Rakesh Roshan became emotional as he accepted the Best Director (Hindi films) trophy for Krrish. “I received the same award in 2003 for Koi... Mil Gaya and here I am again. Hope this relationship continues,” he said. Papa Roshan also collected the Best Actor (Hindi films) trophy on behalf of Hrithik, who won for his superheroic act in Krrish.

Upen Patel won his first ever acting award when he was crowned the Best Male Debutant for 36 China Town. “I don’t know what to say,” he admitted even as the crowd clapped loud and long. Kangana Ranaut, who won the Best Female Debutant award for Gangster, couldn’t make it to Calcutta

It was K.K. who made Saturday a night to remember rendering his chartbusters back-to-back. Coming in at the start and then at the very end, the singer had the crowds dancing in the aisles as he belted out everything from Dus bahaane and Tuhi meri shab to It’s the time to disco and Kya yeh pyar hai.
Pictures by Rashbehari Das