The IIFA Awards: No Surprises Here Except The Golden Moment With The Bajirao Team

The 2016 IIFA awards  which concluded on Freiday noght in Madrid was devoid of surprises.The function on Saturday night  dragged on for nearly 7 hours until 2 am in the morning when a groggy and disoriented Sanjay Leela Bhansali was called to get his Best Director award for Bajirao Mastani.

All his 3 principal actors Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra rushed to Bhansali’s side and escorted him to the stage when he was called to get his award for Best Director.

Nice touch, that. Specially since two of the  above stars will be featuring in Bhansali’s next venture as well.

Ranveer Singh had flown in the same afternoon from Paris where he is shooting Aditya Kapoor’s Befikre. In a valiant attempt to thwart all rumours of a rift with Deepika he showered her with lavish compliments on stage.

The live performances by Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff were to die for. Tiger who considers Hrithik his dancing guru was every bit as skilful and swift as his idol.

While every star worth naming was crammed at the venue, Anil Kapoor’s son Harshvardhan who is soon to make  his debut was conspicuous by his absence at the trailer launch.Akshay Kumar whose layered and evocative  performance in  Airlift was ignored at all the awards functions, preferred to go on a holiday in Europe with his family.But his father more than made up for the son’s absence.His unflagging gusto was evident everywhere during the Madrid event.

On Sunday much of Bollywood returned home to Mumbai.A few like Sanjay Leela Bhansali stayed back to look at Madrid more closely. Hrithik Roshan who was in Spain five years ago shoot for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara had brought along his two sons for the IIFA awards for some sightseeing.