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 1977

Kabhi Kabhie Khushi

'24th Filmfare Awards Night: We survived the emergency axe' said the headline. And guess who presided over the function—Atal Behari Vajpayee! His speech got him a standing ovation from the audience.

A tribute was paid to Mukesh who died the previous year on August 27, 1976. His son Nitin Mukesh sang the award-winning Kabhi kabhie mere dil mein on stage and also accepted his late father's Filmfare Award (for Kabhi Kabhie) from Raj Kapoor.

Incidentally, Kabhi Kabhie won four trophies in all—Best Music Director for Khayyam, Best Lyrics for Sahir Ludhianvi, Best Singer for Mukesh and Best Dialogue Writer for Sagar Sarhadi.

Raakhee and Sanjeev Kumar walked away with the top acting honours. She won her first Filmfare Award for Tapasya and he got his second Best Actor trophy in a row, for Arjun Pandit.

Meanwhile Gulzar collected his fourth trophy, Best Director for Mausam.