1st Filmfare Awards
| 1st Filmfare Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | March 21, 1954 |
| Site | Metro Cinema, Bombay |
| Highlights | |
| Best Film | Do Bigha Zamin |
| Most awards | Do Bigha Zamin & Baiju Bawra (2) |
The 1st Filmfare Awards were held on March 21, 1954, honoring the best in Hindi cinema in 1953. That year they were known as Clare Awards, after Clare Mendonca, film critic of The Times of India who had died in the same year.
In a short ceremony held at Metro Cinema in Bombay (now Mumbai), awards in only 5 categories were handed out. The Chief Guest of function was George Allen, US Ambassador to India. The ceremony was compared by actor David, and it started with actress Nalini Jaywant singing the national anthem. This was followed by song and dance performance by various actors, musical performances by Talat Mehmood, Geeta Roy and Mohammed Rafi. Next two performance were classical dance performances by Vyjayanthimala and Surya Kumari. The finale of the performance section was a folk-dance performance, "Lure of Rajasthan" by Kamini Kaushal and her troupe.
This led to the section where David announced the awards. No nominations were announced, just the winners. Keep with the voting process, where the readers of the magazine, decided the winners through postal votes, even the awards were given away by readers, chosen via a lucky draw. For example, the Best Film trophy was given by Ambassador Allen to a reader, Saijuddin from Hyderabad, who in turn presented it to Bimal Roy. This was followed by Best Actress which was won by Meena Kumari for Baiju Bawra, Best Actor went to Dilip Kumar for Daag. Next, Ace music director Naushad won his first and only Filmfare Award. The final award Best Director was won by Bimal Roy, present by Sonny Cordiero, a reader from Mumbai.
...
Wikipedia