Stree, Raazi and Badhaai Ho bag top honours at Star Screen Awards 2018

The awards season officially kicked off in Bollywood on Sunday night with the announcement of the winners of Star Screen Awards 2018. Mid-budget, content-driven movies — which performed exceptionally well at the box-office this year — held sway over tentpole titles, as critically-acclaimed films like Stree, Raazi and Badhaai Ho took home top honours at the awards night.

Ranveer Singh won the award for Best Actor (Male) for his performance as Alauddin Khilji in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, while Rajkummar Rao won Best Actor (Popular Choice) for playing a small-town tailor in Amar Kaushik’s Stree, which also won Best Film. Alia Bhatt was awarded Best Actor (Female) for playing a young Kashmiri spy in Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi. Pankaj Tripathi won Best Supporting Actor (Male) for Stree and Surekha Sirki — who played the role of the grandmother in Amit Sharma’s Badhaai Ho — was named Best Supporting Actor (Female).

Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta won the Best Actor (Critics) Male and Female awards respectively for playing Mr. and Mrs. Kaushik in Badhaai Ho. Ayushmann Khurrana, who played their son Nakul, also won an award in the category. Ishaan Khatter won Best Debut Actor (Male) for Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds and Radhika Madan won Best Debut Actor (Female) for Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha.

Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk — starring Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu — won Best Film (Critics). Veteran actor Shabana Azmi was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award while Sriram Raghavan won Best Director for Andhadhun. Other top awards went to Amit Trivedi for Best Music Director (Manmarziyaan), Pankaj Kumar for Best Cinematography (Tumbbad) and Gulzar for Best Lyrics (Ae Watan/Raazi). Katrina Kaif, who is awaiting the release of her upcoming film Zero co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, won the Best Real Star on Social Media award.

"I am very happy to have the won the Best Supporting Actor award for Stree. All the memories of shooting for the film in Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh flashed before me while receiving the award. It was a very fruitful and enjoyable journey for me. I picked up many details from my life in my hometown to portray the character of Rudra in Stree. When a film gets appreciated on both fronts — critically and commercially — as an actor I feel most fulfilled. Stree has won 5 awards in total at the Star screen Awards. We are extremely delighted with his honour," Pankaj Tripathi told us over the phone.

Amit Sharma, director of Badhaai Ho, said, "We had never anticipated the massive reaction Badhaai Ho has received. So I feel extremely happy. As a filmmaker, good content is my first and foremost priority.  It’ll be really good to see more content-driven films being made. We can say the scenario has changed if more films like Andhadhun, Stree and Badhaai Ho are made and they do well."

The Star Screen Awards 2018 were hosted by Ayushmann Khurrana and Vicky Kaushal. The gala night witnessed performances by Salman Khan, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Madhuri Dixit, Shraddha Kapoor, Tiger Shroff and others.