IIFA New York got off to a wet start on July 14th night, with rain marring a musical tribute to celebrate maestro A R Rahman’s 25 years in the industry, but ended on a strong note on Saturday July 15th with some 20,000 plus fans gathered at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to watch the Awards show.
The music played on, and the excitement levels increased as he kept belting one hit track after another with a string of singers like Hariharan, Kailash Kher, Jonita Gandhi and Mohit Chauhan joining him on stage. Rahman’s performance at the MetLife Stadium came just days after some fans walked out of his concert at London’s Wembley Stadium for the lack of Hindi songs.Bombay. A.R. Rahman received an award for completing 25 years in the industry.
Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt, Sushant Singh Rajput, Saif Ali Khan walked the IIFA Rocks (a music event) green carpet in their finest without being intimidated by rain. Salman and Shahid also shared the weather update on Twitter and said that the show must go on despite rain.
Salman Khan, who performed on the awards night on July 15, tweeted: “It’s raining in New York, loving the weather. If it does rain tomorrow it will be awesome dancing in the rain at IIFA.” Shahid Kapoor, who was nominated in Best Actor category for Udta Punjab, said: “#iifa rocks. Rain can’t stop the party. (sic)”
On Friday night, hosts Manish Paul and Riteish Deshmukh entertained a crowd of around 10,000 at MetLife Stadium. The ceremonial ‘Green’ Carpet was canceled because of the inclement weather. The show opened up with a musical tribute to Salman Khan by Kamaal Khan who sang some of his latest hits, including “Naach Meri Jaan” from Tubelight and “Jag Ghoomeya” from Sultan.
Punjabi actor and singer Diljit Dosanjh opened up his act on his hit number “Do You Know” continuing on with another recent hit “Move Your Lakk” from Noor, ending with “Ikk Kudi” from Udta Punjab.
Paul and Deshmukh also performed an act on Bahubali versus Laxman from Tubelight and lightened up the mood as they promoted Akshay Kumar’s upcoming film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha with a special toilet act.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil took home four technical awards, including Background Score, Best Engineer, Cinematography and Costume Designing and Pink won three awards in the technical category including Best Dialogue, Best Screenplay and Editing.
The Best Action and Sound Mixing awards were given to Sultan; Adil Shaikh received the award for Best Choreography for the song Kar Gayi Chull from Kapoor & Sons; Mirzya took home the award for Best Sound Design, Fan took home the awards for Best Makeup and Special Effects Visual and Neerja won the award for Best Production Design. The Myntra Style Icon Award was given to Alia Bhatt.
Jonita Gandhi opened up A.R. Rahman’s concert, the most awaited performance of the evening, with the song “Choti Si Asha” from Roja after which Rahman himself sang “Enna Sona” from OK Jaanu. Gandhi then again relaxed the audience while she performed with Haricharan Seshadri and Kailash Kher sang “Mangal Mangal” from Mangal Pandey in his devotional voice. Seshadri and Kher then continued on with “Yun Hi Chala” from Swades.
Aditi Rao Hydari came next to mesmerize the audience with her sweet and soothing voice. Gandhi and Seshadri again came to sing the hit number from last year’s “Agar Tum Saath Ho” from Tamasha after which Hariharan embraced the stage with his classic “Tu Hi Re” from
He continued with “Nahin Saamne” from Taal and “Aye Hairathe” and “Tere Bina” from Guru where he was joined by Gandhi yet again; Benny Dayal along with Neeti Mohan sang “Kaise Mujhe Tum Mil Gayi” from Ghajini and they continued on with “Tu Meri Dost Hai” from Yuvraaj after which Mika Singh came on stage to sing “Heer Toh Badi Sad Hai” from Tamasha.
Taapsee Pannu won the award for Woman of the Year and all performances included background dancers from Arya Dance Academy, who had been promoting the IIFA for the past four months. Actress Alia Bhatt received an award for Best Actress for Udta Punjab.
Other songs that were sung included “Maiyya Maiyya” from Guru, “Tanha Tanha” and “Yaayi Re” from Rangeela and “Sachin.” The show ended with Rahman’s super hit chart buster song “Humma Humma” sung by all artists present including Mohit Chauhan and Javed Ali, who sang a number of their songs composed by Rahman.
Complete List of IIFA Award 2017 Winners:
Best Film: Neerja
Best Actor in a Leading Role Female: Alia Bhatt; Udta Punjab
Best Actor in a Leading Role Male: Shahid Kapoor; Udta Punjab
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Female: Shabana Azmi; Neerja
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Male: Anupam Kher; M.S. Dhoni
Best Debut Female: Disha Patani; M.S. Dhoni
Best Debut Male: Diljit Dosanjh; Udta Punjab
Best Performance in a Comic Role: Varun Dhawan; Dishoom
Best Performance in a Negative Role: Jim Sarbh; Neerja
Best Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury; Pink
Best Story: Ayesha Devitre Dhillon and Shakun Batra; Kapoor & Sons
Best Playback Singer Female: Kanika Kapoor; Da Da Dasse – Udta Punjab, Tulsi Kumar; Soch Na Sake – Airlift
Best Playback Singer Male: Amit Mishra; Bulleya – Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Best Music Director: Pritam; Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Best Lyricist: Amitabh Bhattacharya; Channa Mereya – Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Woman of the Year: Taapsee Pannu