Idea Filmfare Awards to be held in Mumbai on January 24

GURGAON: For over half a decade now, the Filmfare Awards have given recognition to all that's now considered the gold standard in Indian cinema. And the coming year, the 101st for the Indian film industry, will be no different. The 59th Idea Filmfare Awards, "a night when the biggest stars will shine together", will be held at the Yash Raj Films Studio in Mumbai on January 24 next year.

The announcement was made at a press conference in Gurgaon on Tuesday in the presence of actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar. "I am here more as a subscriber than anything else. There's a history attached to Filmfare magazine, and there are such wonderful memories that it has given us. So I'd like to say that we'll all be there for the Idea Filmfare Awards. We'll gloat if we win one, sulk if we don't, but we'll be there," Akthar said.

According to Tarun Rai, the CEO of Worldwide Media that publishes Filmfare magazine, the coming award ceremony "will be nothing like what we have done before or people have seen so far".

"It has been another astounding year for Bollywood. More than 130 films were produced, many of which have had huge commercial success and won critical acclaim. For the first time, seven films have crossed the Rs 100-crore mark. It will be a tough task for Filmfare readers and the jury to select the winners as we have both popular and critics' awards," Rai said.

Also present at the announcement ceremony was the chief corporate affairs officer of Idea Cellular, Rajat Mukarji. "The 59th Idea Filmfare Awards mark another glorious year of Idea's association with Filmfare," he said.