First batch of IIFA awards announced

Plus: Shanghai casts a critical eye over India's race for development, Shilpa's new baby gets his own Twitter account, and a veteran trio celebrate the centenary of Bollywood.

Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra at the IIFA awards. Punit Paranjpe / AFP

Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara went home with five trophies from the International Indian Film Academy technical awards, held on Friday night at the IIFA Rocks, a fashion and musical event organised a day before the main awards ceremony in Singapore. The coming-of-age film, starring Abhay Deol, Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin, won best editing, best sound recording mixing, best choreography, best screenplay and best cinematography. The Shah Rukh Khan sci-fi film RA.One won four awards - for best special effects, best sound design, best song recording and best production design. The Dirty Picture won for best costume design and best make-up. The renowned composer AR Rahman won best musical score for the film Rockstar. Hosted by Ayushmann Khurrana and Chitrangada Singh, the event also saw performances by Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, who grooved to a song called Uff from their forthcoming film Teri Meri Kahaani. * IANS

New film questions India's Shanghai envy

The Hindi political thriller Shanghai hit cinemas early this week, raising awkward questions about India's development. The film, an Indian version of the 1966 Greek novel Z, is set in a small unnamed town being pumped with funds to become a major economic hub, "the next Shanghai" - a vision that is a common promise among Indian politicians. The director Dibakar Banerjee says the film looks at the gulf between the dream of Shanghai and the reality for hundreds of millions of Indians every day - and questions whether one model can fit every country. "Shanghai has become kind of a touchstone for much of the political debate around development that goes around in India," he told the online magazine BollySpice. The film, unusually for Bollywood, delves into a murky world of crime and politics, the gaping rich-poor divide in India and the thorny issue of the less well-off being thrown off their land for urban development. Banerjee, known for small-budget hits such as the 2006 movie Khosla Ka Ghosla, is among a growing band of Indian filmmakers whose works deviate from the popular but generic escapist blockbusters. * AFP

Shilpa Shetty's newborn already has Twitter account

Shilpa Shetty's son Viaan may be just 20 days old but he already has a Twitter account under the handle @ViaanRajKundra. The account was created on Wednesday, on the occasion of Shetty's 37th birthday. "Happy birthday mummy! Love you loads. My mom's the best in the whole milky way galaxy," read a tweet from the account, which already has close to 3,000 followers. Gossip websites say the account is being run by Shetty's husband Raj Kundra, but the couple have not commented. "Spending time with my mummy on her birthday today," read another posting. "We are getting a massage now. Dad has a surprise planned." Viaan, born on May 21 in Mumbai, is the Bollywood couple's first child. * IANS

Veteran trio pay musical tribute to Bollywood

The singers Hariharan and Usha Uthup, along with the composer Lesle Lewis, paid tribute to the centenary of Indian cinema by recomposing and performing some of Bollywood's timeless hits at last Friday's IIFA Rocks. The trio kicked off their performance with songs from the films Barsaat (1949) and Aasha (1957), then belted hits from the 1960s, including tracks from the films Kala Bazar, Kohinoor and the acclaimed Aradhana. They went on to cover soundtracks from the 1970s until the current decade, while a big screen on stage flashed Bollywood's most memorable film posters, from movies including Laila Majnu, Teesri Manzil, and Jodhaa Akbar. * IANS