Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra bag best actor awards at the SAIFTA

In a night to remember, the debut edition of the South Africa India Film and Television Awards (SAIFTA) was held on Friday night at the glittering International Convention Centre, Durban, South Africa in the witness of a thronging crowd. The motley crew of over 150 film and TV personalities from India, 30 top South African film/TV personalities and the 7,000-strong audience took their seats and perhaps never moved till the end of the ceremony. The red carpet set the tone for happenings to come with Bollywood heartthrobs Ranveer Singh and Sidharth Malhotra walking down looking dapper in their suits, while the sizzling Amy Fernandes strutted down in her beautiful gown. Sadha Naidoo, Board Chairperson, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and Neliswe Dlamini, Project Manager DEDT were seen interacting with Mukesh Bhatt and Waheeda Rehman and Abhay Deol. Telly stars from Indian shores Manish Paul who makes his film debut soon walked in with his co-star Elli Avram, Mona Singh, Apurva and Shilpa Agnihotri, Ravi Dubey, Sargun Mehta among others were joined by their contemporaries from the Rainbow nation. It was this rubbing of shoulders and the exchange of ideas that gave SAIFTA its successful vibe right away. While Ranbir Kapoor and Nawazuddin Siddiqui made it to the first SAIFTA’s awards list bagging the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor award respectively, it was the competitive Film of the Year category that drew many cheers from the diverse audience before Anurag Basu’s Barfi walked away with the best film award. Priyanka Chopra lapped up the best actress award. The trophy for the Director of the Year was proudly held by Abhishek Kapoor for Kai Po Che. Bollywood’s debutants also shone under the African sun with Sidharth Malhotra for Student of the Year and Huma Qureshi for Gangs of Wassepur claiming best debut honours. John Abraham won the Youth Icon of the year award. On the television front, Zee TV’s popular soap Pavitra Rishta picked up the Show of the Year award with the dashing Gurmeet Choudhary being adjudged lead actor of the year while Kratika Sengar of Punar Vivah bagged the lead female actor award. All in all the first SAIFTA was the awards to the top South African film and TV personalities that opened a never-seen-before dimension for the Indian fraternity.