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 1983

Pancham intended

It was celebration mixed with nostalgia as the Filmfare Awards completed 30 years. An audio-visual of the Filmfare journey captured the mood perfectly.

To begin at the beginning, Sarika, scheduled to conduct the foyer interviews, came late because her car broke down en route. She hastily hailed a cab and managed to make it in time, looking stunning in a white skirt and blouse teamed with tribal jewellery.

Hema Malini was not that lucky, though. Hema. who had gone to Chennai the previous night, flew back in the morning so that she could attend the event. But alas, had to cancel out when baby Esha came down with chicken pox.

The competition in the Best Film category was stiff this year. Showman Raj Kapoor finally beat B R Chopra (Nikaah), Ramesh Sippy (Shakti), Sagar Sarhadi (Bazaar) and Subhash Ghai (Vldhaata) to win his third Best Director trophy for Prem Rog, his love story with a message. Son Randhir Kapoor good-humouredly cribbed that he had to miss out on his prime drinking time in the evening because he had to be there to clap for his father!

The Best Actor tussle turned out to be a Dilip Kumar vs Amitabh Rachchan one. Amitabh lost out despite three nominations—for Shakti, Namak Halaal and Bemisal. The other two films nominated, Shakti and Vidhaata, had Dilip saab. The thespian won for the former.

R D Burman, who picked up his first Filmfare trophy for the musical caper Sanam Teri Kasam. started the show with his 70-piece orchestra. Panchamda and Best Playback Singer Kishore Kumar brought the house down with some memorable numbers—Chingari koi bhadke, Sanam teri kasam, Ye dosti hum nahin and Jaana o meri jaana.

Another pair of friends, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who took home the Best Screenplay Award for Shakti, had recently gone their separate ways. However, when Salim spotted an anxious Javed in the foyer, he called out. "Javed saab!" and they shook hands. Ye dosti hum nahin...