New Delhi: Kiran Rao’s directorial venture Laapataa Ladies emerged as the biggest winner at the 70th Filmfare Awards, bagging 13 awards, including Best Director for Rao. The annual awards, which honour artistic and technical excellence in Hindi cinema, were hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, and Maniesh Paul at the EKA Arena in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
Laapataa Ladies, released in 2024, was also named Best Film. The film, starring Pratibha Ranta and Nitanshi Goel as two brides whose lives get swapped on a train, saw both actresses winning accolades—Goel claimed the Best Debut Actor Female, while Ranta received the Critics' Award for Best Actor Female. Supporting roles were recognised too, with Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan winning Best Supporting Actor Female and Male, respectively.
In the male lead category, Abhishek Bachchan and Kartik Aaryan shared the Best Actor in Leading Role Male award for I Want to Talk and Chandu Champion. Alia Bhatt won Best Actor in Leading Role Female for Vasan Bala’s Jigra, which also starred Vedang Raina. Rajkummar Rao received the Critics' Award for Best Actor Male for portraying visually impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla in the biopic Srikanth. Lakshya was named Best Debut Actor Male for his role in the action thriller Kill, which also won four technical awards, including Best Cinematography (Rafey Mehmood), Best Production Design (Mayur Sharma), Best Action (Seayoung Oh, Parvez Shaikh), Best Editing (Shivkumar V Panicker), and Best Sound Design (Subash Sahoo).
I Want to Talk, directed by Shoojit Sircar, won the Critics' Award for Best Film, while the Best Debut Director award was shared by Kunal Kemmu (Madgaon Express) and Aditya Suhas Jambhale (Article 370). Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Zeenat Aman and the late director Shyam Benegal. The RD Burman Award for upcoming musical talent was awarded to Achint Thakkar for his work in Jigra and Mr and Mrs Mahi.
Laapataa Ladies also swept the music and technical categories, winning Best Music Album and Best Background Score for Ram Sampath, Best Lyrics for Prashant Pandey, and Best Playback Singer Male for Arijit Singh. Sneha Desai received two awards for Best Screenplay and Best Dialogue, while Darshan Jalan won Best Costume.
Other awards included Best Story to Aditya Dhar and Monal Thakkar (Article 370), Best Playback Singer Female to Madhubanti Bagchi (Stree 2), and Best Adapted Screenplay to Ritesh Shah and Tushar Sheetal Jain (I Want to Talk). Aditya Sarpotdar’s Munjya won Best VFX (Redefine), and Bosco Caesar received Best Choreography for Tauba Tauba from Bad Newz, whose hookstep became a viral social media trend with fans recreating Vicky Kaushal’s dance.
With PTI inputs