The oldest and most prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation Awards 2024, established by the 25-year-old film foundation, saw the glitterati of tinsel town gracing the event at Mukesh Patel Auditorium in Mumbai.
Legendary actress Saira Banu was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award, alongside luminaries like veteran Rajshri Productions filmmakers Kamal Kumar Barjatya and Ajitkumar Barjatya, Anil ‘Gadar’ Sharma, ISAMRA Founder & CEO Sanjay Tandon, evergreen actress Poonam Dhillon, Dia Mirza, legendary Leslee Lewis, maverick music maker Aman Pant, Aman Trikha, Anwesshaa, Jitendra Singh Sabu, Brijendra Kala, Rohit Roy, Kabir Dohan Singh, Pitobash, Rajpal Yadav, Manish Wadhwa, Vaishali Thakkar, Priyamani, Darshan Kumar, Deepak Tijori, Amit Behl, Simrat Kaur, Archana Gautam, Karan Mehra, Rajan Shahi, Ravi Gosain, Ronnie Rodrigues, Rakesh Bedi, Chahat Pandey, Shrey Mittal, VIP, Mukesh Modi, Paintal, Mohomed Morani, Ruslaan Rana, Padma Shri Ali Gani, Neetu Joshi, lyricist A M Turaz, and eminent journalists Vishal Chatkara, S Ramachandran, Rudrani Chattoraj, Bharatii K Dubey, and Lipika Verma, besides spinmeister Siddhant Gill, among others.
Among the technicians, ‘Gadar 2’ cinematographer Najeeb Khan, music directors Kishore Sharma and Mahesh Sharma, best makeup artist Surendra Salvi, and best art director Ulhas Nandare were also honoured.
Ashfaque Khopekar, President of Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation, along with co-organisers Babubhai Thiba and Ashok Shekhar asserted, “The Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation Awards is one of the most prestigious awards in Indian cinema, honouring many senior artists in Hindi cinema. Since nearly 25 years, this foundation followed by the decade old award has been striving to honour and provide pensions and medical benefits to technicians and needy artistes in the film industry.”
Incidentally, this in most likely the only award that honours technicians behind the scenes for their exceptional work.
