Stardust Awards 2016: Jeetendra and Ranveer Singh made a predictable show more bearable

At the Stardust awards telecast on Sunday evening, at least, they thought of honouring someone different this time. How many Lifetime Achievement awards can you give to Amitabh Bachchan? It’s time we realize he still has a long way to go.

There he sat at the Stardust awards with his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, who ran up to the stage to touch Rekha’s feet and collect an award for, don’t laugh, Jazbaa. 

The cameras scurried to Big B for a reaction shot, and you can’t help but wonder that this is what awards shows are made up of.

Bachchan, however, remained as inscrutable as ever. I only wish he had said more about Zeenat Aman, when she was honoured by him on stage that evening. They’ve done some noteworthy work together including the iconic Don. On stage though, they looked rheumatic than romantic, stiff and mismatched.

Meanwhile, Jeetendra had a much better introduction. It also helped that his two children Tusshar and Ekta Kapoor sat in the audience applauding when the retired actor went up on stage to collect his award.

Jeetendra got a rousing welcome from the crowds, and that included Salman Khan who did an impromptu jig to his popular song, ‘Mast baaaron ka main aashiq,’ with host Manish Paul. Classic award show entertainment.

Admittedly the Stardust awards were more entertaining than the others telecast so far this season. Farah Khan and Ritesh Deshmukh were a laugh riot — or so they want you to believe. In reality, they definitely had their funny moments. While enacting scenes from the Best Film nominees, Farah climbed on to Ritesh’s back to do a Bajrangi Bhaijaan and insisted she wanted to go to Disneyland instead of Pakistan.

Maybe this gag would encourage the Pakistan government to open a Disneyland in their country.

But the star of the show was clearly Ranveer Singh. When he took to the stage to give Anil Kapoor the Best Supporting Actor award for Dil Dhadakne Do Ranveer did a bang-on AK imitation. In fact he did a better Anil Kapoor impersonation than Anil Kapoor himself.

The live performances were the pits, one worse than the previous one, performed by stars who just want to take the money and run. (Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan.. the list is endless)

The things one has to do to win awards these days.

What was interesting among the award winners was that with each year, the awardees are getting younger. The best male playback winner Armaan Mallik is just 20 and the best female playback singer is 23. The youngest winner Rushaali Malhotra of Bajrangi Bhaijaan is 8.

They should immediately instate an award for the best star-baby of Bollywood. Nominees would be Aaradhya Bachchan, Azad Khan, AbRam Khan, Vivan Kundra and Kiara Dutta. And Farah Khan.