Sanjay Leela Bhansali's epic love saga "Bajirao Mastani" continues to be an award season favourite as it bagged the top prizes at the Zee Cine Awards 2016, including the best film honour and best director trophy for the filmmaker.
The film, which took home 11 trophies, also earned Ranveer Singh his best actor award, which the young star deservingly shared with megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who was honoured for his performance of a cranky father in "Piku".
The period drama won the best playback singer (female) award for Shreya Ghoshal ('Mohe Rang Do Laal'), best choreography for Ganesh Acharya ('Malhari'), best art direction, best action, best background score, best sound design, best visual effects and best cinematography.
Neeraj Ghaywan's sensitive drama "Masaan," which was seemingly ignored throughout the award season, was the second big winner at the ceremony. The movie bagged five trophies including best debut for Vicky Kaushal, best debut director honour for Ghaywan and best supporting actor female for Shweta Tripathi.
Deepika Padukone won the best actress award for her acclaimed performance of a dutiful daughter in Shoojit Sircar's "Piku". Her rumoured boyfriend Ranveer came to receive the award on her behalf as the actress is in Los Angeles shooting for her Hollywood debut, "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage".
"Piku" also earned writer Juhi Chaturvedi best dialogues and best screenplay awards. Nawazuddin Siddiqui won the best actor in a negative role for his stupendous performance in Sriram Raghavan's "Badlapur".
While Anu Malik won the best music award for "Dum Laga Ke Haisha", writer Varun Grover won the best lyricist award for the movie for his song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage".
The best debutant (female) was a tie between child star Harshaali Malhotra ('Bajrangi Bhaijaan') and Bhumi Pednekar for "Dum Laga Ke Haisha". The best playback singer (male) was shared by Mohit Chauhan ('Tamasha') and Arijit Singh ('Roy').
A new category was introduced this year at the Zee Cine Awards was-- stunt person of the year, which went to Amit Grover for his work in R Balki's "Shamitabh".
The night saw performances by Anil Kapoor, Ranveer, Sushant Singh Rajput, Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Kriti Sanon among others.
The ceremony was hosted in parts by Shahid Kapoor, Karan Johar, Parineeti Chopra and Sonakshi.
The lack lusture ceremony had superstar Salman Khan as the saving grace, who was sitting beside his "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" co-star Sonam Kapoor.
The biggest highlight of the evening was "Dil Dhadakne Do" star Anil's performance, who showed his moves on the tracks of current Bollywood lot including his nephew Arjun, Varun Dhawan and Ranveer. The actor concluded his act with "Ram Lakhan" song.
