Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Sardar Udham’ leads with 3 technical awards on IIFA Day One

Abu Dhabi: IIFA 2022 took on an electrifying note on Thursday night with a star-spangled concert featuring some of the best musical talents of the country and a fashion parade curated by Falguni and Shane Peacock, rounded off by the announcement of the first series of nine technical awards.

The concert, hosted by Farah Khan with Aparshakti Khurana, saw a power-packed performance by Devi Sri Prasad, the man behind the music of ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ and ‘KGF 2’, followed by virtuoso performances by Guru Randhawa, Honey Singh, Tanishq Bagchi, Neha Kakkar, Asees Kaur, Ash King and Zahrah S. Khan.

The fashion show saw Jacqueline Fernandez and Ananya Panday dazzle on the ramp, even as the host of the IIFA Awards night, Salman Khan, chilled out with Sara Ali Khan and Dhvani Bhanushali in the audience.

The much-anticipated high point of the evening, though, was the announcement of nine technical awards, three of which went to Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Sardar Udham’ (for best cinematography, Avik Mukhopadhayay; editing, Chandrashekhar Prajapati; and VFX).

Aanand L. Rai’s ‘Atrangi Re’ got two awards (best choreography for the ‘Chaka Chak’ number, Vijay Ganguly; and background score, A.R. Rahman.

Vishnuvardhan’s Sidharth Malhotra-starrer ‘Shershaah’ got the award for best screenplay (Sandeep Shrivastava), Anubhav Sinha’s ‘Thappad’ for best dialogue (Anubhav Sinha and Mrunmayee Lagoo), Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’, featuring Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan, for sound design (Lochan Kanvinde), and Kabir Khan’s World Cup cricket drama, ’83’, starring Ranveer Singh, for sound mixing (Ajay Kumar P.B. and Manik Batra).