‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ and ‘Badhaai Do’ win big at 68th Filmfare Awards

Mumbai: Stories and characters that challenged stereotypes were honoured at the 68th Filmfare Awards, with Alia Bhatt-starrer ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ and LGBTQ comedy-drama ‘Badhaai Do’ emerging as top winners.

‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, won 10 awards, including ‘best film’, ‘best director’, ‘best actor in a leading role (female)’ for Bhatt and more.

Superstar Salman Khan hosted the ceremony for the very first time, alongside co-hosts Ayushmann Khurrana and Maniesh Paul. The annual star-studded show, attended by the who’s who of the Hindi film industry, saw performances by Vicky Kaushal, Govinda, Janhvi Kapoor, Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez.

The second big winner of the night was ‘Badhaai Ho’, which dominated the critics’ section. While Rajkummar Rao won the ‘best actor in a leading role (male)’ trophy for his performance as a gay policeman, Bhumi Pednekar took home the ‘best actress (critics)’ award for the role of a lesbian PT teacher. She shared the trophy with Tabu for ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’.

‘Badhaai Do’, directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni, also won ‘best film (critics)’, ‘best actor in a supporting role (female)’ for Sheeba Chadha; ‘best story’ and ‘best screenplay’.

‘Best actor (critics)’ went to Sanjay Mishra for the thriller movie ‘Vadh’. ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’ took home ‘best music album’ (Pritam); ‘best lyrics’ for ‘Kesariya’ (Amitabh Bhattacharya); ‘best playback singer (male)’ for Arijit Singh and two more awards.

‘Best actor in a supporting role’ went to Anil Kapoor for ‘Jugjugg Jeyo’ and the film also won the ‘best playback singer (female)’ award for Kavita Seth.

Veteran actor Prem Chopra was honoured with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.

The awards were held at the Jio World Convention Centre, BKC.