Mumbai, September 24, 2017: The star-studded closing ceremony of the 8th Jagran Film Festival saw many famous Bollywood personalities, both on-screen and off-screen, walk away with awards and accolades for their invaluable contribution to the Indian cinema. A special jury was constituted to frame the best talent in Bollywood and this included deciding awards under 38 special categories for the JFF Hall of Fame.

The iconic moment was when Shabana Azmi won the ‘Icon of the Indian Cinema’ award. Praveen Bhatt was honoured for his special creations in the world of cinema and awarded the title of ‘Special contributions to the Cinematic Art’.

The acting power-house Nawazuddin Siddiqui was honoured with the title of ‘Rajnigandha Achievers Award’. Irrfan Khan won the Best Actor (Male) for his special on-screen humour in ‘Hindi Medium’. Swara Bhaskar is the Best Actor Female for her bold screen avatar in 'Anarkali of Aarah'. 

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (Best Director) and her female-lead trio (Best Actor Female- Special Jury Award) were honoured for Pink. Jolly LLB-2 was declared the ‘Best Feature Film’ for mass viewership entertainment.

The occasion was graced by eminent personalities including Sanjay Bhaumik, Taaha Shah, Payal Ghosh, Pallavi Das, Mustafa Burmawala, R S Prasanna, Rahul Dholakia, Sudhir Mishra, Arjan Bajwa, Ram Sampath, Payal Ghosh, Sanjay Bhutiani, Aman Vidhate, Rahul Dholakia, Sudhir Mishra, Makrand Deshpande, Adil Hussain, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Saurabh Tyagi, Tanveer Ghazi, Satish Kaushik, Subhash Kapoor, Seema Pahwa, Sanjay Masoom, Meet Brothers, Sahil Slathia, R S Prasanna, Rahul Rawail, Prashant Ingole, Divya Dutta, Makarand Deshpande, Omung Kumar, Barry John, Vinod Pande, Sonali Kulkarni, Moroccan Ambassador -Mohammad Maliki, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and many more.

The eminent Jury members included names of Sudhir Mishra, Divya Dutta, Sunny Joseph, Sankalp Meshram, Harmeet Singh for the Jagran Indian Showcase encompassing the mainstream Indian cinema.

Jagran Shorts Jury was judged by Barry John, Makarand Deshpande and Aarti Chhabria. Some of the winners in this segment include Best Short Film-Burning, Best Short Film-Special Jury to-Azaad and Mazjhabi Laddu. The International Jury comprised of Rahul Rawail, Rauf Ahmed and Jainardhan Sathyan. Prasoon Pandey, Sonal Dabral, Kailash Surendranath, Raj Nair and Nima DT Manchu were also a part of the jury segment titled-Cinema of the Seller Jury.

The scintillating evening also saw performances by Ashok Chakradhar and Shikhar Kamat. Ashok Chakradhar, a celebrated Hindi poet entertained the audience with his continued on-stage performance. Shikhar Kamat is an Illusionist and Storyteller, who creatively applaud, for hiseach stage performance considering the audience as his canvass.

The 2017 Jagran Film Festival saw a new format induction-the cash reward section- for various Indian film categories. This includes Best Indian Feature Film cash rewards of 2 Lakhs, Best Indian Film Directors cash reward of 1.5 Lakhs, Best Indian Debut Director cash reward of 1 Lakh, Best Short Film cash reward of 1000 dollars, and Best Foreign Feature Film cash reward of 2000 dollars.  

Other prominent awards/certificates staged at the event include:

• Best Music Director: Rohit Sharma, ‘Anarkali of Aarah’
• Best Background Score: Ram Sampath, ‘Raees’
• Best Debut Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani, ‘Mukti Bhawan’ and Avinash Das, ‘Anarkali of Aarah’
• Best Supporting Actor Female: Seema Pahwa, ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’
• Best Actor - Male - Special Mention: Adil Hussain, ‘Mukti Bhawan’
• Best Actor - Male - Special Mention: Dhruva Padmakumar, ‘A Billion Colour Story’
• Best Lyrics: Tanveer Ghazi, ‘Pink’
• Best Costume: Purnima Oak, ‘‘Doctor Rakhmabai’
• Best Screenplay: Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy, ‘A Billion Colour Story’
• Best Visual Effects: Ketan Yadav & Haresh Hingorani
• Best Makeup: Ruhee M Bindra, ‘Raees’
• Best Set Design: Aman Vidhate, ‘‘Doctor Rakhmabai’
• Best Sound Re Recordist: Anish John, ‘Trapped’
• Best Cinematography: K.U. Mohanan, ‘Raees’
• Best Foreign Feature Film: Goran Trenchovski, ‘Golden Five’
• Best Foreign Feature Film Special Jury Award - Special Jury Award: Zeca Brito, ‘Back to 97 (Em 97 Era Assim)’
• Best Foreign Feature Film Special Mention- Zeynep Sevi Yilmaz, ‘Purple Horizons’
• Cinema of the Seller – Bronze- BBDO Worldwide and Rising Sun Films ‘Mirinda - Release the Pressure’
• Cinema of the Seller – Silver- Taproot Dentsu and Nomad Films, ‘Adidas – Odds’
• Cinema of the Seller – Gold- McCann Erickson and Nirvana Films, ‘Live Love Laugh Foundation - Dobara Poocho’

Mr. Basant Rathore, ‎Sr VP - Strategy, Business Development & Brand at Jagran Prakashan Ltd. said, “The 2017 edition of the Jagran Film Festival was a ‘live’ splendour as many people from the cinema, spanning across India and the world, continued to engage with an applauding audience. The attendees of the film festival were greeted with special moments when some of the eminent personalities spoke their heart on the new cinema boundaries being defined each year.”

The cinema plus cultural rendezvous, the Jagran Film Festival, will continue to enthral the audience with a broaden horizon next year. The 2018 edition promises to be a journey through deeper corners of India, connecting with the urban cities and the hinterlands, even further through cinema.