Dabangg leads winners at IIFAs; Shah Rukh Khan wins best actor

The International Indian Film Academy Awards gave top honours on Saturday night to Fearless (Dabanng), a comedy thriller about a shady cop starring Salman Khan. The film won best picture as well as best screenplay, best music direction, best female playback singer, best male playback singer, best villain, and best female debut won by Sonakshi Sinha. 

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan won the best actor prize for My Name is Khan, which also won Karan Johar the best director award. Khan also closed the ceremony with a Bollywood dance spectacular.

The best female actor prize went to Anushka Sharma for her role as a wedding planner in Band Baaja Baraat. Her co-star Ranveer Singh won best debut male, and together they won the award for hottest couple on screen.

Arjun Rampal won best supporting actor for Raajneeti, and best supporting actress was Prachi Desai for Once Upon A Time in Mumbai.

Among technical prizes, Sudeep Chatterjee won Best Cinematographer for Guzaarish; Namrata Rao won Best Editing for Band Baaja Baaraat; and Sabu Cyril won best Art Director for Robot.

In aid also of strengthening ties between India and Canada the awards show hopes in the future to continue promoting Bollywood in other countries across the globe. This was the first IIFA event held in North America, after past events in the UK, Dubai, Singapore and other locations.

Shah Rukh Khan also closed the ceremony with a Bollywood dance spectacular.

The IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) Awards took Toronto by storm on Saturday night for a three day event, as around 22,000 Bollywood fans packed out the Rogers Centre for the awards show, reaching an approximate worldwide TV audience of 600m.