50 years of filmfare awards Options

[Pradeep]

Found this lovely articles on filmfare. The articles contain rich images from the past awards. Since I cannot create the virtual feel here, I've got these articles scanned into PDF format.

The text part I am pasting it on the forum, so that we can look it up later during search.

Starting from the 50s... going for Gold.

Next year, the Filmfare Awards will celebrate 50 years of history and drama, winners and legends. We kick off the countdown to 2005 with a decade-by-decade look at the ballad of the black lady.

Year 1954

'The whole purpose of the Filmfare Awards project is to make the public nationally conscious of, and interested in, the indigenous film industry. It is imperative that the picture-going public be helped to realise the Indian Film Industry's tremendous national significance. At the same time, the Film Industry itself must be made aware of its public, which stands as ultimate judge over its products.' Thus was announced the entry of the beauteous black lady on March 21, 1954. Amazing how true the words ring even today, in a vastly different context of globalisation and the film industry having obtained industry status. The acknowledgement of the power of the public vote, of course, remains the cornerstone of the Filmfare Awards.

The first ladies

The first event began with just five awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Song. The winners? Bimal Roy bagged the first two trophies for Do Bigha Zameen, then came Dilip Kumar for Daag, Meena Kumari for Baiju Bawra and Naushad for Tu ganga ki mauj in Baiju Bawra.

Compering notes

Star performances have always been the highlight of the Filmfare Awards. There were seven that year—Vyjayanthimala, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mehmood, Kamini Kaushal, Nalini Jaywant, Satyavati and Geeta Roy (who later became Geeta Dutt when she married Guru Dutt).

And the compere for the evening was the incomparable David who continued to do so for many years. From 1954's David to 2004's Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan, humour rules!

Reader reaction

Fittingly, the first ceremony was held in a movie hall—Mumbai's Metro cinema (oh, for those smallis- beautiful days).

The awards were chosen on the basis of a popular poll conducted by the magazine. Four Filmfare readers, picked by a lucky draw from among those who participated in the poll, came up on stage to present the trophies to the winners.

[Pradeep]

Year 1957

No, she said

Vyjayantimala made history in 1957—by refusing an award! It was the Best Supporting Actress trophy for Devdas and
she sniffed, "Mine wasn't a supporting role!" Motilal had his own take on the matter: "Most people seem to have the idea that a supporting role is something unimportant and not worth bothering about. Supporting, my foot!" He had reason to harrumph: he played the role of Chunilal in Devdas. But he accepted his trophy for Best Supporting Actor anyway. Devdas bagged another trophy too— Dilip Kumar for Best Actor.

The best of the rest

But it was Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje which walked away with four awards for V Shantaram, Best Film and Best Director V Shantaram, Best Art Direction Kanu Desai and Best Sound Recording A K Parmar.

Two legends opened their Filmfare accounts this year: Nutan with a Best Actress trophy for her brilliant performance in Seema and Shankar-Jaikishen who were adjudged Best Music Directors for Chori Chori.