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The Channel [V] Awards Chat

Rediff (Sat Nov 30 22:02:58 1996 )

After Air Supply's performance, there was a rousing demand for one more, just one more song. Filmstars Raageswari and Lisa Ray came on stage to present the Channel V Chosen One award to Air Supply - and the crowd went through the roof when both Air Supply artists hugged Lisa Ray breathless and announced that they would be back in India in January for a performance. Meanwhile, Jaaved Jaafri back doing his number, with Protima Bedi and ace lensman Prabuddha Dasgupta. The award for the best promotion and packaging is announced - TO THE ULTIMATE DANCE COLLECTION, put out by Channel V and Crescendo.

Prabhudda drew a laugh when, before announcing the award, he said solmenly: "For the last few minutes, I have been seeing a different side of Protima Bedi..." Suspenseful pause, and then he turns her round and shows the Channel V logo carved into her short-cropped hair.

Urmila Matondkar presents the award for Best Rock Album. The winner, BRYAN ADAMS..... The Adams comes on stage, accepts his award, gives the svelte Urmila a hug... Hey, now he can really sing that song from his album, "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You"! The applause for Adams echoing off the skies, seems to be very very popular with the crowd here...

AIR SUPPLY GUYS CHATTING LIVE!!! SUNEETA RAO IS SINGING A NEW RELEASE AT THE MOMMENT GREAT DANCING'KESARIA'..SHORTS AND BLACK BUSTIERES ARE THEIR COSTUMES!! SOUNDING GOOOD THE CROWD SEEMS TO BE ENJOYING IT

The awards being announced thick and fast now, as they try to make up for lost time. The one for best HINDI FILM REMIX goes to LESLIE LEWIS, for his work with Asha Bhonsle on RAHUL AND I.

Lez, who along with Hariharan - Colonial Cousins, to you - has been nominated for nine awards, told us before the show kicked off that the awards didn't really matter. "It'll be nice to win, but what is more encouraging is the fact that we have been nominated. We have already won the MTV Viewer's Choice Award, that was great. It would be nice if we could win something here, too." Oh well, the night's young yet, we get the suspicion we haven't seen the last of Colonial Cousins at this bash...

And talking of not having heard the last of Lez and Hari, this comment from the latter, before the function: "What is most important for the two of us, today, is that we are performing live here. That's what we enjoy most, that's what we are going to love doing tonight, with Krishna."

And there's the ultimate Indian crowd-pleaser up there on stage, folks - REMO FERNANDES, performing live! He's doing the Microwave Pappadam - starts off with a haunting flute solo, from which he segues into his 'mouth music', 'playing' various instruments with nothing but his mouth. And from there, he slides seamlessly into a medley of Bollywood favourites - Jalwa, the Humma Humma number from Bombay, the Huyya Huyya song from the Manisha Koirala-Nana Patekar movie Khamoshi...

HEY! It's our very own MADE IN INDIA NO...NOT ALISHA ..REMO!! He's performing on stage right at this moment and i have to say he's pretty darn good..he's doing a medley of four of his song"i really didn't know which to choose from coz i have so many" is what he said to me yesterday,,Aren't i lucky..lucky ali isn't the only one. Remo has actually just come down for the show he leaves tomorrow!

And the crowd appears to have forgotten the earlier anguish of the show not starting on time... Remo's brought them alive, and now they're roaring for more...

Meanwhile, peering out into the audience is as much fun as covering the awards do... let's see... designer Tarun Tahiliani of the Jemima Imran Khan wedding dress fame is out there... Shekhar Kapur, presumably come to root for wife Suchitra Krishnamurthy... and all the models in one big clique - there's Sheetal Malhar, Arjun Ramphal, Milind Soman, Madhu Sapre... Noyonika Chatterjee in a black and white striped dress, towering over poor Rohit Bal... photographers from the media tried to jump the barricades to shoot the models - Madhu looked ready to challenge them to a wrestling bout, then brought smiles to their faces by posin happily for pictures... it's like they say, it's all happening out there now...

Coming back to remo, just wanna let you know that he's one of the nicest guys i've come across..Did i say that earlier this evening when i witnessed LED ZEPPLIN PLAYING REMO WAS PLAYING THE GUITAR FOR THEM? I magine guys one of our artist one on one with one of the rock legends of all time!! way to go remo!!

Right now REMO is singing huma huma from the film"bombay" and he has the stadium ROCKING..THERE ARE PEOPLE GOING WILD!! THEY 're dancing to their hearts content!!

Talking of that HUmma Humma number, another guy who's made it into a hit is sitting out there watching the fun... one Mr A R Rehman - who not only composed it, but also sung the song in the Tamil original...

i HEar Remo dedicated these songs to GUL-ANAND WHO WAS THE PRODUCER OF THE FILM JALWA and it gave Remo his first break in Hindi cinema ...Gul anand died a few weeks back!

JAVED IS ON AGAIN..cracking jokes as usual..HEY WAIT A MINUTE...REAL NOSTALGIA ON STAGE..IT'S JAGDEEP WITH SON JAVED. And what's this I hear? He's accusing him of robbing his jokes! I mean this has got to me a rare sight...it's a mad house...imagine not one but two JAFFERIES IN THE HOUSE!!

It's like, when the show started late, people were ready to riot - but hey, spare a thought for the effort that's gone in here. 500-plus people, working 20,000 man-hours, to erect the 80x60 foot stage, and the 20x20 satellite stage... seven kilometers of wiring to be laid... 300 lighting fixtures including tower lamps, halogens, varilights, roboscans, robocolours to be installed and tested... not to forget the 15x20 foot giant video screen... and guess what, it's all working perfectly out there. And one other thing - in case you were wondering, most of the 500-strong team that worked to put this show together are Indians... LET'S HEAR YOU PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR THEM, PEOPLE, THEY DESERVE IT... this venue looks spectacular...

And while on stats and such, the Channel V tv crew has a job on its hands, as well - don't forget the whole show goes out on the channel at 8.30 pm ist tomorrow (Sunday December 1). And they are doing it without editing or remixing the sound - on the fly, to get into jargon for a bit...

MEanwhile Arjun Rampal are announcing the best playback singer - it's gone to Kumar Sanu for Tujhe Dekha Tho Yeh... from DDLJ.

And here we go with another award... folks, it's ASHA BHOSLE, the one and the only, for BEST PLAYBACK SINGER. The award was presented by Javed Akhtar. Asha Bhosle's acceptance speech: "When they told me to come for this, I thought, oh, Channel V, sab chote chote bachche honge, chote chote kapade pehenke! And finally I decided to come here as a spectator - and now I have won an award, so main bhi chota ban gaya! I must thank A R Rehman for giving me this opportunity (she won for the Rangeela number). And I promise that if you keep supporting me like this, I will give you many more pop songs." And for those who are curious, no, Ashaji was not wearing a chota chota kapada - rather, the diva looked her usual elegant self in a gleaming white sari with sparkling green pallu.

There's a lot of unintentional comedy going on out there as well - Shekhar Kapur and Ruby Bhatia go up on stage to present the award for the BEST FILM SONG... and Shekhar wanders back to his seatbefore the deed is done, and has to be dragged back. Comes of skipping rehearsals, we suppose... anyways, applause time, this one is for JATIN LALIT for the BEST HINDI SONG. The award going to the ditty Tujhe Dekha Tho Yeh Jaana Sanam, from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayange.... Ruby, before the presentation, was asking Shekhar what the ingredients of a good Hindi film were, and he says, "good songs, good music" - which sounds more like the recipe for a music channel - ain't songs and acting and direction and photography involved in there someplace? - but never mind that for now... After this one, Veejay Alexandra came up to announce something or other, but nobody heard her... "Due to circumstances beyond our control...", as the stock phrase goes, the mike chose that moment to blink outa action...

Meanwhile, back to Jagdeep, father of Javed Jaffri... incidentally, there were three generations of the family out there tonight, what with Javed's son sitting in the audience while pa and grandpa were doing their number on stage... Jagdeep says "Music is a wonderful thing, the one language that brings people together all over the world, it talks the language of love, not war." Jagdeep also did a little apologising for the rather weak script of the skit he did with son Javed, and admitted the script wasn't exactly top rate, but was pleased that the audience had accepted it, and him, anyway. The audience appreciation, of course, owes to his status in the industry - the man who debuted in Bimal Roy's Do Bhiga Zameen, the man who stole hearts as Surma Bhopali in Sholay... Unfortunately, the success of that second character, which almost became a synonym for Jagdeep, prompted him to produce a film titled Surma Bhopali. The thud as the film bombed could, report has it, be heard for miles!

Lucky's won another award, guys - best music video. The award is presented by Shobha De.

And this time, Lucky was suprised into a stunned silence for the next three minutes.

Javed played a rather unconventional Fortune teller Future Furtado, who upon looking into his "Crystal balls" and "father's Flatulance" came up with a winner for the Viewer's Choice award - Falsetto Fernandes, or Falsies, as he calls her.

Funny thing is, Javed Jaffrey - the Emcee of the evening - is none too enamoured of this whole Pop business anyways... "They should be called paap singers," said Javed, who has made a career out of such wordplay. "Remo, Colonial Cousins , Lucky Ali - they are kind of favourites for me, though, since they have tried to be more original comparitively."

Besides the paap-ular - sorry, Javed, just trying our hand at your game here - Jaaved is not too pleased by the whole packaging business either (remember there's an award for Best Packaging in there, among all the rest). "Packaging has become the name of the game. We are just aping the west. There's less of aping and more of gaping. That's the sad part."

Poor Jaaved - imagine feeling the way he does, and still having to not only Emcee such functions, but also do more of the same on that show he hosts on Channel V. Like they say, it's a tough life, huh?

When Jaaved finally cleared the stage for Sheetal Mallar, who looked gorgeous in a strappy black dress and Prabhudutt Dasgupta, the audience was waiting... And the winner is - Lucky Ali.

What some of the winners and guests said...