IIFA Rocks 2023: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Alia Bhatt's 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' bags most number of awards

IIFA Rocks, held on the first night of Bollywood's IIFA Awards, was a musical extravaganza. Hosted by Farah Khan and Rajkummar Rao, the show commenced with a performance by Palak Muchhal, followed by the hosts entertaining the fans with a rendition of the song ‘Main Hoon Na’ and recreation of a scene from the film 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'.

Some performers that conquered the IIFA stage were Sunidhi Chauhan and Badshah. Jacqueline Fernandez, Rakul Preet Singh, and Nora Fatehi delivered captivating performances later in the evening. Amit Trivedi enchanted the audience with his beautiful voice, accompanied by Arun Kamat, Devendra Palse, Meghna Mishra, and Yashita Sharma. The beats of Sukhbir Singh and Iulia Vantur had everyone dancing to the energetic tunes. The evening reached an exhilarating conclusion with an electrifying performance by Nucleya.

The IIFA Rocks awards honour the technical category winners, which include Cinematography, Screenplay, Dialogue, Editing, Choreography, Sound Design, Sound Mixing, Background Score, and Special Effects (Visuals). The evening recognised their exceptional contributions to Indian cinema through their specialised skills.

Sanja Leela Bansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi won big, bagging 3 technical awards for Cinematography (Sudeep Chatterjee), Screenplay (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Utkarshini Vashishtha) and Dialogue (Utkarshini Vashishtha, Prakash Kapadia)

Anees Bazmee’s horror comedy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, featuring Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani, won 2 awards: Choreography for title track (Bosco Caesar) and Sound Design (Mandar Kulkarni)

Ajay Devgn’s crime thriller Drishyam 2 won the award for Best Editing (Sandeep Francis), while Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s adventure film, Brahmastra: Part One—Shiva won an award for Special Effects (Visual) (DNEG, Redefine).

Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan’s Vikram Vedha won the award for Background Score (Sam CS) and Rajkummar Rao, Huma Qureshi, Radhika Apte starrer Monica O My Darling won the award for Sound Mixing (Gunjan A Sah, Boloy Kumar Doloi, Rahul Karpe).

• Watch: Salman Khan, sister Arpita groove to Sukhbir's 'Sauda Khara Khara' at IIFA Rocks 2023