International

A Bollywood night in California

OAKLAND (CALIFORNIA): The changing winds of India-Pakistan ties seemed to have swept Indian music, with Pakistani singer Faakhir bagging two awards and the music of the romance across borders `Veer Zaara' fetching the best lyricist award for Javed Akhtar and best male singer for Roop Kumar Rathod at the second Sangeet Awards held here on Sunday.

Akhtar got the coveted best lyricist award beating Sameer who had four nominations for `aankhein band karke' from `Aitraz', `dhoom machale' from Dhoom and `sun zara' from Lucky, in a glittering function at the Oakland arena attended by leading Bollywood actors including Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Shilpa and Shamita Shetty. Sunidhi Chauhan won the best female singer award for this year's chart-topper `dhoom machale dhoom' while Rathod went away with the best male voice for `Tere Liye' from Veer Zaara, beating Sonu Nigam, nominated for `Sun Zara' from `Lucky' and `Chup Chup ke' from `Bunty and Babli' besides Udit Narayan for `Aankhein Band Karke' from Aitraz. Rathod, who had failed to bag nominations for the Filmfare and Screen awards, said the award was a sweet surprise for him. ``The song is special to me because the film had a very special group, Shahrukh and the help of late Madan Mohan's compositions.'' The highlight of the show was the performance by the two King Khans of Bollywood — Shahrukh and Salman, appearing for the first time on the same stage in the U.S. Their high octane performance and dance to the tunes of evergreen hits left the strong Indian audience spellbound and wanting more.

Shahrukh had the audience eating out of his hand. — PTI

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