Black sweeps Screen awards

Mumbai: Mega star Amitabh Bachchan and actress Rani Mukherjee were awarded best actor award in male and female categories for their performances in film Black at the 12th Hero Honda annual Star Screen awards function in Mumbai.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black also bagged awards in the categories of best film, best direction, best screenplay, best cinematography, best sound and background score at the glittering function held on January 11.

However, Bachchan was unable to receive the award personally because of his recent surgery after being dignosed for diverticulitis. His actor son Abhishekh accepted the trophy on Bachchan's behalf saying, "My father is unwell but

would be happy to receive this honour".

Receiving the award, Mukherjee said, "This award is for Sanjay Bhansali, who has become the light in my career".

Iqbal, featuring "spirit of empowerment" and Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi on political values, were awarded the first Ramnath Goenka memorial awards.

"The honour is given to these two films because they reflect the values of our founder Ramnath Goenka", said Shekhar Gupta, CEO and Editor-in-chief

of Indian Express.

Sweta Prasad and Nasiruddin Shah were honoured for best supporting roles, while Abhishek Bachchan bagged the best actor in comic role for his performance in Bunty Aur Babli.

Nana Patekar received "the best actor in a negative role award" for Apaharan, while Vidya Balan and Shiney Ahuja won the most promising newcomer role award in female and male categories for their performances in Parineeta and Hazaron Khawashein Aisi respectively.

Shankar Ehsan Loy won the best music director award for Bunty aur Babli while Gulzar was adjudged as the best lyricist.

Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghosal received the best male and female vocalist awards for popular numbers Dheere Jalna (Paheli) and Piya Bole (Parineeta) respectively.

Veeru Devgun, father of actor Ajay Devgun, was presented the best action director award while child artist Ayesha Kapoor was awarded for his role in Black.

The highlights of the function was scintillating performances by Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukherjee, Bipasha Basu, Shilpa Shetty and Zayed Khan.