It's award time for Bollywood!

Prime time is about to hot up with three big Bollywood award events early in 2009, reports Princy Jain.

It’s report card time for Bollywood. After 52 Fridays and 400-plus films in 2008, the award season is upon us and it will likely be a tough call for judges, as most of the top stars — Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan — have delivered big hits this year. Among the actresses, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra gave noteworthy performances.

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All stops pulled out
The economic and political climate may be tense, but organisers of these awards refuse to let that stall the show. “These are the biggest events of Bollywood. Everyone wants to put together the best show,” says Mohammad Morani, MD, Cineyug Entertainment, the event management firm that is putting together three of the big award shows — Screen, Filmfare and Stardust. First off the block is Screen (January 10), followed by Filmfare (February 20) and Stardust (March).

“The level of production of these awards is higher with every passing year. The films are bigger, consequently the competition is tougher,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

Spoof again
The last Filmfare awards were hosted by Shah Rukh and Saif Ali Khan, who did a spoof on Ranbir Kapoor’s towel scene in Sawaariya. This year, at the Screen awards, Sajid Khan, one of the three hosts along with Shreyas Talpade and Farah Khan, will do a spoof on John Abraham’s famous yellow trunks in Dostana.