Things that u don't know about Filmfare Awards...

(Part I)
By IndiaFM News Bureau, February 22nd, 2005 - 1230 hrs IST

Filmfare Awards completes its Golden Jubilee this year. 50 years of commemorating the best of
the best among the film world!

Here’s presenting a trivia in tribute to the first and one of the most anticipated Film Awards of the
film industry. Some interesting tidbits on the awards, the nominations, the events, the
performances, the hits and the misses that evolved with the progression of this film felicitation
function.

 The guest of honour at the first ever awards (March 21, 1954 at the Metro theatre,
Mumbai) was to be Gregory Peck. He couldn't make it--his flight from Colombo, where he
was on location for Purple Plain, was delayed. But he did attend the banquet that
followed at the Willingdon Sports Club.

 At first, the awards were called Clares after Clare Mendonca, the Times of India film critic
who died the year of the first awards, 1954. However, the name didn't stick.
 At the first awards function, only 5 awards were presented with Do Bigha Zameen
winning the award for the best film while Bimal Roy carried off the statuette for Best
Director for the same film. Dilip Kumar won the first of many awards for his performance
in Daag, while Meena Kumari won hers for Baiju Bawra. Best Music Director went to
Naushad for Baiju Bawra.
 Lata Mangeshkar refused to accept her first Filmfare award because the Filmfare
statuette was designed in the shape of a woman and the woman had no clothes on. So
Lataji had reservations in accepting that nude statuette. Finally the award had to be
wrapped with a handkerchief to be granted to Lataji.
 In 1962 Shammi Kapoor was expecting an award for his performance in Professor but
was quite disappointed when he lost it to Ashok Kumar who won it for Rakhee. Shammi
Kapoor subsequently received a letter from Ashok Kumar where Dadamuni stated that he
knew how one felt to not win an award and added that he felt Kapoor deserved the
award. Dadamuni's generous and magnanimous thoughts brought back a smile on
Shammi Kapoor's face.
 In 1969 Sunil Dutt who lost it to Dilip Kumar in the Best Actor category organized a party
for the thespian after the awards function. This started the trend of post-award parties.
 Vyajayantimala didn't accept the award for Devdas in the Best Supporting Actress
category because she thought she was the lead actress of the film and not Suchitra Sen.
 Also Pran refused to accept the award in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film
Beimaan but his reason was different. He thought that the background score of Pakeezah
was much better than the background score of Beimaan. But Shankar-Jaikishen won the
award for Beimaan.
 In 1975 Yash Chopra's Deewaar swept all the awards except for the lead actor Amitabh
Bachchan.
 Also surprisingly the biggest blockbuster hit Sholay won only one Filmfare Award in 1975
and that too for Best Editing.
 In the 1981 Filmfare Awards, Kishore Kumar was supposed to sing only 2 songs for the
event. But he was so involved in the performance that he sang continuously for almost
one hour. Accompanying him on the stage was his brother Ashok Kumar and son Amit
Kumar. And later Kishore Kumar instead of singing his award winning song crooned
Mohammed Rafi's song.
 Vani Ganpathi and Kamal Haasan got married on the day of the 25th Filmfare Awards.
And they made a spectacular entry with their garlands still around their necks. That year
 Vinod Mehra also postponed his honeymoon with wife Meena Broaca to attend the
function. Both marriages did not survive.
 Choreographer B. Sohanlal who was the president of the choreographer's association
consistently appealed to the Filmfare to have an award for Best choreography. But his
plea was answered only in 1988 when the Best Choreography Award was conceived.
And the first choreography award was won by Sohanlal's disciple Saroj Khan for the Ek
Do Teen number from Tezaab.
 The Doordarshan had an objection with Amitabh Bachchan's performance on the Jumma
Chumma number on the Filmfare Awards event as the movie Hum had not yet been
released by then and the song remained uncensored. The channel threatened to sue
Filmfare for this but the matter subsequently dissolved.
 In 1991 Dimple Kapadia gave a special award to husband Rajesh Khanna for completing
26 years in the film industry. In the same year Gulzar gave an award to his ex-wife
Rakhee in the Best Supporting Actress category for Ram Lakhan. And while handing over
the trophy Gulzar in a very mischievous fashion said to Rakhee “Aji Sunti Ho”.
 As the Filmfare award function of 1991 came to an end, the entire mob of audience ran
towards Amitabh Bachchan as he stood up near the pool. The pool was covered with
planks and one of the planks cracked. At that moment Amitabh Bachchan did a real
action hero stint by moving forward and picked up Rakhee who was very close to the
cracked plank thereby averting a mishap.
 After winning numerous awards singer Lata Mangeshkar voluntary ousted herself from
the Filmfare awards nominations so that fresh talents can get a chance. And after
decades, in 1995, Lata Mangeshkar accepted the Best Playback Singer award for Hum
Aapke Hai Koun! once again on popular demand.