'3 Idiots' sweeps IIFA awards, Amitabh adjudged best actor

COLOMBO: Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots swept this year's IIFA awards bagging 8 honours including the Best Film award, with megastar Amitabh Bachchan winning the Best Actor award for his role as a progeria-afflicted child in Paa.

The Best Actress award was shared jointly by Vidya Balan for Paa and Kareena Kapoor for 3 Idiots.

The Best Director trophy went to Rajkumar Hirani for 3 Idiots, while he along with Abhijat Joshi, Vidhu Vinod Chopra won the Best Story award for the same film.

The film, a coming-of-age comedy about three students at a top engineering college, had been nominated in 12 of the 13 main categories in the 11th Indian International Film Academy (IIFA) awards.

It has already won eight of the 12 technical awards announced last month, including Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Sharman Joshi won the Best Male Supporting Actor award for his role in 3 Idiots, while Divya Dutta received the Best Female Supporting Actress award for her performance in Dilli 6.

3 Idiots won another award with Boman Irani clinching the statuette for his negative role in the film.

Sanjay Dutt laughed all the way to bag the award for best performance in a comic role in All the Best.

Composer Pritam pipped maestro A R Rahman to win the Best Music Director award for Love Aaj Kal while Shaan was adjudged the Best Singer (Male) for 'Behti hawa sa tha woh' (3 Idiots). Kavita Seth won the Best Singer (Female) for 'Iktara' in Wake Up, Sid.

Swanand Kirkire won the Best Lyrics award for 3 Idiots.

Sri Lankan beauty Jacqueline Fernandez jointly won the Best Debut Female Actor along with Mahie Gill for their role in Aladin and Dev D, respectively.

Omi Vaidya aka Chatur Ramalingam of 3 Idiots shared the debut male honours with Jackky Bhagnani for Kal Kissne Dekha.

Veteran filmmaker J Om Prakash, maternal grandfather of Hrithik Roshan, and yesteryear siren Zeenat Aman were felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement award.

The awards were given away at a glitzy ceremony in the Sri Lankan capital, which was overshadowed by protests from minority Tamils and was boycotted by the South Indian stars like Kamal Haasan and director Mani Ratnam.

Many top Bollywood stars also gave it a miss, including brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

The technical awards, given away in May, had 3 Idiots upholding its position above all other films by bagging awards for Best Screenplay, Cinematography, Dialogue, Background Score, Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Song Recording, Sound Re-recording.

The dance moves in Imtiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal won Bosco Caesar the Best Choreography Award, while the Best Costume Designing went to Anahita Shroff and Dolly Ahluwalia for the same movie.

Sabu Cyril got the Best Art Direction and Charles Darby (Eyecube Labs) won Best Special Effects (Visual) for Aladin.

Sham Kaushal was favoured with the Best Action Award for Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey and the Best Makeup Award went to international make-up artists Christien Tinsley and Dominie Till for 'Paa'.