Top stars from Pakistan and India descended on Dubai this week for the annual Masala Awards, organized by the popular magazine. Touted as the only high profile event that puts stars from sides of the border in the limelight together,
InstepREVIEW
The tenth annual Masala Awards, held in Dubai, brought together stars from Pakistan and India in a glamorous ceremony.
Dubai
Top stars from Pakistan and India descended on Dubai this week for the annual Masala Awards, organized by the popular magazine. Touted as the only high profile event that puts stars from sides of the border in the limelight together, this year’s Masala Awards – marking their tenth anniversary – attracted names such as Mahira Khan, Mawra Hocane, Saba Qamar and Meera from Pakistan, alongside Sridevi, Govinda and Arjun Rampal (amongst others from India). The delightfully humorous (and non-political) Boman Irani acted as host for the evening while Govinda took to stage in performances that delighted the audience.
The Red Carpet
As expected, all focus was on what the divas wore and it appeared that red was the popular choice of the evening, for Pakistan’s stars at least. Mawra Hocane was the first to appear in a trailing gown, by Filipino designer Michael Cinco; the gown ruffled from top to bottom and was splendid in all dimensions. We were amazed at how Mawra had managed to stuff the whole nine yards of its trail into the backseat of her car! Mahira Khan was as minimalist as Mawra was over the top. Mahira chose to wear a simple red silk column gown, by Syrian designer Rami Al Ali, with a Bvlgari serpent neckpiece and she looked stunning, as always.
Saba Qamar, in the limelight for Hindi Medium, looked chic in a black and white asymmetrical dress designed by Shehla Chatoor. Last but not least, Meera also appeared in a pleated red gown but in true diplomatic form, she chose to wear Indian designer Manish Malhotra for the evening. She did look glamorous, one has to admit.
That said Meera did look a little uncomfortable (read self conscious) around the fresher lot and felt a bit side-lined albeit unnecessarily (as she was allotted Table no 3). However, she took charge of the situation and introduced herself to Boney Kapoor, Raza Beig (the CEO of Splash) and one of the key sponsors of the event. Raza invited her to his table where he was chatting away with other Indian stars including Manish Malhotra. The selfie session started and in the next ten minutes I saw Meera walking up on stage with Raza Beig to present the award to Arjun Rampal for his contribution to Indian Cinema. She also had a quick chat with Sridevi in the media room. Now that is who we call a Go-Getter!
The Awards
Saba Qamar picked up Breakthrough Performance of the Year which in our humble opinion was a tough toss between Saba and Sajal Aly, who was just as brilliant in Mom.
In fact I even spoke to Boney Kapoor to ask whether he was missing Sajal and Adnan, whom he had cast in his last film Mom with Sridevi. He said, “All I can say about them is that they were thorough professionals and I missed them both throughout the promotional tours and even till now.”
Mahira Khan, who made a Bollywood debut in Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees, was awarded Woman of Substance while Mawra Hocane, who did not have a movie in 2017 was recognized for her social media skills with the Social Media Sensation award. Arjun Rampal was awarded for his Contribution to Cinema while Govinda received an award for being the Dancing Legend of Bollywood.
Arjun Rampal, while acknowledging the efforts of Masala in bringing the Indian and Pakistani talent together said in his acceptance speech, “I have made many Pakistani friends in Dubai and they are like my family now, thanks to platforms like these, which are clear from any political agendas and whose soul agenda is to promote talent of the two countries. It is a big task and Masala is doing it in the best possible way.”
The Stage
Having won an award for his legendary footwork, it was inevitable that we would see and enjoy the man in action on stage. His performance – Govinda danced to his hit songs including ‘Chalo Ishq Laraein’ – was priceless and while it appeared that he wasn’t as agile as he once was, it was the expression and the body language that made up for lack of footwork. For many in attendance, Govinda’s performance was the paisa vasool moment.
The other highlight, of course, was Ankita Lokhande's performance to a medley of Sridevi's songs, including the evergreen 'Hawa Hawaii'.
– A selection of pictures by Zuhair Javed
– Sadiq Saleem is a Dubai based entertainment journalist. He is also an Instep & Something Haute correspondent and can be contacted on his page fb/sidsaidso.
