Noted Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar scored a hat trick at the first Sangeet Awards ceremony held at the famous Royal Albert Hall in London on Friday night.
At a glittering function attended by leading Bollywood music directors and actors, Akhtar won awards for Best Lyrics in Pop Music Category for O Sahiba, Best Lyrics category (critics award) and Best Lyrics in the film music category for the title song in the Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster Kal Ho Na Ho .
The awards, which will be an annual affair henceforth, were organised by the Sahara Group to celebrate excellence in Indian music.
Akhtar said he was winning three awards at one time after nearly three decades.
While noted singer and composer Adnan Sami could not attend the function, as he was unwell, filmstars Hrithik Roshan , Sameera Reddy and Yana Gupta stole the show with their performances.
The legend’s honour went to music director Anandji of Kalyanji-Anandji fame while ace music composer A R Rahman won awards for Best Music Director (film music – Yuva ) and Best music arranger (critics award) for Yeh Rishta in the film Meenaxi .
Playback singer-cum-music director Shankar Mahadevan claimed honours for Best male singer and Best Album award and later along with Ahsan and Loy won prizes in the Best Song category for Kal Ho Na Ho and the Best music director award.
Aishwarya Rai launched Sahara One, Sahara’s music channel at the function.
The awards for Best film song and Best new voice in film music went to Rahaat Fateh Ali Khan.
Other award winners were Awadoot Gupte (Best New Voice in Pop Music), Strings (Best Pop Group,) Aksar (Best Song), H Sridhar and S Shivkumar (Best sound recordist – critics award for the film Yuva), Ram Sampad (Best music Programmer – critics awards for the film Khakee ), Sunidhi Chauhan (Best playback female singer in Chameli ), Amir Jamal (Best male playback singer in Murder ), Jatin-Lalit (Most popular choice award for soundtrack in Hum Tum ), Alka Yagnik (Best playback female singer in Tere Naam ) and Udit Narayan (Best male playback singer in Koi Mil Gaya ).
Other prominent personalities who attended the three-hour long show were Shabhana Azmi , Feroze Khan , Shyam Benegal , Ramesh Sippy and Ken Ghosh and choreographer Shiamak Davar.