South Indian stars shine at Asiavision Awards

The Sharjah Cricket Stadium, a venue which has hosted a record number of One Day International cricket matches, hosted a different one-day event on Friday night. And this time it was not Pakistani batsman Saeed ‘Desert Fox’ Anwar but the veteran Indian actor Mohanlal who won a record third award at the Asiavision Movie Awards 2012.

Mohanlal received the best male actor award for his performances in Malayalam box office hits Spirit, Run Babby Run and Grandmaster minutes after midnight, despite model, TV anchor and the host of the show Ranjani Haridas speeding up the proceedings towards the end.

Visibly unhappy with the ceremony running late, the popular south Indian actor greeted his fans “Good morning.” The veteran of 32 years in Indian cinema, which also includes Tamil and Hindi, was hugely appreciative of the latest “revolution” in Malayalam movies, which in the past year has seen a new path with some bold, real and strong movies.

When Mohanlal was asked to sing a few lines from the popular song ‘Attumanal Payayil’ from Run Babby Run, he did not hide his displeasure. But in order not to disappoint the hundreds of fans eagerly waiting to hear him sing, the star obliged. Mohanlal also won the New Sensation in Singing Award. Six months ago, he was voted as the Most Influential Malayalee in the World in an online poll conducted by broadcaster Asiavision.

The ever-smiling Juhi Chawla added sparkle to the evening and was nostalgic after doing a few moves to her popular number I’m The Best from Phir Bhi Dil Hi Hindustani.

She was happy to meet some of her old friends like actor-director Revathy and Khushboo.

For the first time an award was given to Tamil and Bollywood movies. Versatile singer, actor and musician Shruti Hassan won the Excellence in Tamil Movie award for her role in Moondru, while the Excellence in Hindi Movie honour went to Chawla for her role in I Am.

Hassan exhibited her singing prowess when she joined Benny Dayal to sing the popular number Adiye Kolluthey from Varanam Aaiyaram. Equally enjoyable was the performance of Ramya Nambeesan of the song Muthuchippi from Thattathin Marayathu. Singer Unni Menon also kept the audience spell bound with songs from Malayalam and Tamil movies.

The evening started with an audio-visual of A Salute to 100 Years of Indian Cinema and was followed by another audio-visual tracing the achievements of yesteryear superstar Sathyan.