Bollywood Awards 2018: Alia or Tabu? Amit Trivedi or SEL? Manoj Bajpayee or Ranbir? A pick of the year’s best work

As a follow-up to my list of best Bollywood films released in theatres in 2018, here is my pick of nominees and winners in categories recognised at most film awards functions worldwide. I have given a minimum of four and a maximum of seven nominations per slot, except in the case of the Best Film for which I have listed 10 nominees, because my list of 10 best films of 2018 has already been published. For practical reasons, I have confined myself to films that were released in mainstream theatres. However, in coming years, as the number of films being directly released on online platforms increases, the criteria for this list will perhaps change. That is a consideration for a later date. For the moment, here are my picks of the best that 2018 had to offer in all departments of cinema emerging from what we call Bollywood (i.e. the Mumbai-based industry that produces films largely in the Hindi language), from acting to direction, music and other technical streams: BEST FILM [caption id=“attachment_4469071” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Alia Bhatt in a still from Raazi. Image via Twitter[/caption] I have ranked these from 1-10 in my Best Bollywood Films of 2018 article: Nominees: Andhadhun Badhaai Ho Gali Guleiyan Mukkabaaz Mulk October Raazi Stree Tumbbad Veere Di Wedding And the award goes to… Raazi   BEST DIRECTOR Nominees: Anurag Kashyap (Mukkabaaz) Dipesh Jain (Gali Guleiyan) Meghna Gulzar (Raazi) Shoojit Sircar (October) Sriram Raghavan (Andhadhun) And the award goes to… Meghna Gulzar (Raazi)   BEST WRITING [caption id=“attachment_4428297” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Banita Sandhu and Varun Dhawan in a promotional still of October. Twitter[/caption] Nominees: Andhadhun: Sriram Raghavan, Hemanth Rao, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti, Yogesh Chandekar Gali Guleiyan: Dipesh Jain Mukkabaaz: Anudeep Singh, Anurag Kashyap, Vineet Kumar Singh, Mukti Singh Srinet, K.D. Satyam, Ranjan Chandel, Prasoon Mishra October: Juhi Chaturvedi Raazi: Bhavani Iyer, Meghna Gulzar And the award goes to… Raazi: Bhavani Iyer, Meghna Gulzar   BEST ACTOR (FEMALE) [caption id=“attachment_4404423” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still of Rani Mukerji from Hichki. Image from Twitter.[/caption] Nominees: Alia Bhatt (Raazi) Anushka Sharma ( Pari ) Anushka Sharma ( Sui Dhaaga ) Neena Gupta (Badhaai Ho) Rani Mukerji ( Hichki ) Tabu (Andhadhun) Zoya Hussain (Mukkabaaz) And the award goes to… Alia Bhatt (Raazi)   BEST ACTOR (MALE) [caption id=“attachment_4793461” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Ranbir Kapoor in Sanju. Image from Twitte/@abramaali2[/caption] Ayushmann Khurrana (Andhadhun) Gajraj Rao (Badhaai Ho) Manoj Bajpayee (Gali Guleiyan) Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Manto) Rajkummar Rao (Omerta) Ranbir Kapoor ( Sanju ) Vineet Kumar Singh ( Mukkabaaz ) And the award goes to… Ranbir Kapoor (Sanju)   BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (FEMALE) [caption id=“attachment_5246401” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Rasika Dugal and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Manto[/caption] Nominees: Anuja Sathe (Blackmail) Gitanjali Rao (October) Rasika Dugal (Manto) Shahana Goswami (Gali Guleiyan) Swara Bhasker (Veere Di Wedding) And the award goes to… Shahana Goswami (Gali Guleiyan)   BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (MALE) [caption id=“attachment_4503687” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Harshvardhan Kapoor and Priyanshu Painyuli in a still from Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. YouTube[/caption] Nominees: Abhishek Banerjee (Stree) Angad Bedi ( Soorma ) Aparshakti Khurana (Stree) Prateek Kapoor (October) Priyanshu Painyuli (Bhavesh Joshi Superhero) Jimmy Sheirgill (Mukkabaaz) Vicky Kaushal (Raazi) And the award goes to… Vicky Kaushal (Raazi)   BEST CAST [caption id=“attachment_4631701” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Vineet Kumar Singh in a still from Mukkabaaz. Image via YouTube[/caption] Nominees: Andhadhun: Tabu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan, Manav Vij, Chhaya Kadam, Ashwini Kalsekar, Zakir Hussain, Pawan Singh, Kabir Sajid Gali Guleiyan: Manoj Bajpayee, Om Singh, Shahana Goswami, Arbaaz Khan, Neeraj Kabi, Ranvir Shorey Mukkabaaz: Vineet Kumar Singh, Zoya Hussain, Jimmy Sheirgill, Ravi Kishan Pataakha: Radhika Madan, Sanya Malhotra, Vijay Raaz, Sunil Grover, Namit Das, Abhishek Duhan, Saanand Verma Raazi: Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Jaideep Ahlawat, Rajit Kapur, Shishir Sharma, Soni Razdan, Amruta Khanvilkar, Arif Zakaria, Ashwath Bhatt, Aman Vashish Stree: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee, Pankaj Tripathi, Atul Srivastava Tumbbad: Sohum Shah, Jyoti Malshe, Dhundhiraj Prabhakar Jogalekar, Anita Date, Deepak Damle, Ronjini Chakraborty, Mohd Samad And the award goes to… Andhadhun Tabu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan, Manav Vij, Chhaya Kadam, Ashwini Kalsekar, Zakir Hussain, Pawan Singh, Kabir Sajid   BEST MUSIC [caption id=“attachment_5590971” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan in a still from Kedarnath[/caption] Nominees: Andhadhun: Songs: Amit Trivedi Background score: Daniel B. George Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain: Songs: Pravin Kunwar, Oni-Adil, Ranjan Sharma Background score: Ranjan Sharma Kedarnath: Songs: Amit Trivedi Background score: Hitesh Sonik Laila Majnu: Songs: Niladri Kumar and Joi Barua Background score: Hitesh Sonik October: Shantanu Moitra, Anupam Roy, Abhishek Arora Raazi: Songs: Shankar Ehsaan Loy Background score: Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Tubby And the award goes to… Raazi: Songs: Shankar Ehsaan Loy Background score: Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Tubby Note: Fabulous though it is, I have not included the music of Dhadak here (songs: Ajay-Atul, background score: John Stewart Eduri) only and only because a bulk of it has been transposed here from Ajay-Atul’s soundtrack for the 2016 Marathi blockbuster Sairat of which Dhadak was a Hindi remake.   BEST SONG [caption id=“attachment_5302021” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Naina Da Kya Kasoor. YouTube[/caption] Nominees: Ae Watan (from Raazi): Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy Lyrics: Gulzar (incorporating lines from Allama Iqbal’s Lab pe aati hai dua) Singing: Sunidhi Chauhan and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy children’s chorus Dilbaro (from Raazi): Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy Lyrics: Gulzar Singing: Harshdeep Kaur, Vibha Saraf and Shankar Mahadevan Meri Ankhein (from Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain) Music: Pravin Kunwar Lyrics: Yogesh Singing: Shaan, Vaishali Mhade and Pravin Kunwar Naina Da Kya Kasoor (from Andhadhun) Music: Amit Trivedi Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni Singing: Amit Trivedi Namo Namo (from Kedarnath): Music: Amit Trivedi Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya Singing: Amit Trivedi O’ Meri Laila (from Laila Majnu) Music: Joi Barua Lyrics: Irshad Kamil Singing: Atif Aslam and Jyotica Tangri And the award goes to… Ae Watan (from Raazi): Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy Lyrics: Gulzar (incorporating lines from Allama Iqbal’s Lab pe aati hai dua) Singing: Sunidhi Chauhan and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy children’s chorus (Soham Vavekar, Advait Raman Shankar, Tanirika Chakraborty, Vasudha Tiwari, Ananya Halarnkar, Tejas Tambe, Ghazal Javed, Archana Hegdekar & Satyajeet Jena)   BEST EDITING [caption id=“attachment_5258491” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Tumbbad. YouTube[/caption] Nominees: Aarti Bajaj, Ankit Bidyadhar (Mukkabaaz) Aditya Warrior ( Omerta ) Sreekar Prasad (Manto) Chris Witt (Gali Guleiyan) Nitin Baid (Raazi) Pooja Ladha Surti (Andhadhun) Sanyukta Kaza (Tumbbad) And the award goes to… Chris Witt (Gali Guleiyan)   BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY [caption id=“attachment_4718591” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar and Irrfan Khan in Karwaan. Image via Facebook[/caption] Nominees: Avik Mukhopadhayay (October) Avinash Arun ( Karwaan ) Kai Miedendorp (Gali Guleiyan) K.U. Mohanan (Andhadhun) Pankaj Kumar (Tumbbad) Sachin K. Krishn (Daas Dev) Ranjan Palit ( Pataakha ) And the award goes to… Avik Mukhopadhayay (October)   BEST SOUND DESIGN [caption id=“attachment_4377023” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Anushka Sharma in a still from Pari. Image from Twitter/@myhardikpandya[/caption] Nominees: Kunal Sharma (Raazi) Madhu Apsara (Andhadhun) Mandar Kulkarni (Omerta) Kunal Sharma (Tumbbad) Dipankar Jojo Chaki (October) Anish John (Pari) Shajith Koyeri & Savitha Nambrath (Stree) And the award goes to… Kunal Sharma (Tumbbad)   BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN [caption id=“attachment_5169231” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Neeraj Kabi in Gali Guleiyan. Image via Twitter[/caption] Nominees: Aditya Kanwar (Bhavesh Joshi Superhero) Snigdha Karmahe, Pankaj Poal, Anita Lata Rajagopalan, Donald Reagen Gracy (Andhadhun) Rita Ghosh ( Manto ) Sujata Sharma Virk (Gali Guleiyan) Nitin Zihani Choudhury, Rakesh Yadav (Tumbbad) Shazia Zahid Iqbal (Mukkabaaz) Meenal Agarwal (Pari) And the award goes to… Nitin Zihani Choudhury, Rakesh Yadav (Tumbbad)   MOST INTERESTING DEBUTANT IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE [caption id=“attachment_5277821” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Sanya Malhotra and debutant Radhika Madan in a still from Pataakha. YouTube[/caption] Nominees: Om Singh (Gali Guleiyan) Gitanjali Rao (October) Radhika Madan (Pataakha) Sara Ali Khan ( Kedarnath ) Zoya Hussain (Mukkabaaz) And the award goes to… Zoya Hussain (Mukkabaaz)   Note: I am not nominating Dulquer Salmaan in this category, although Karwaan was his first Bollywood film, because he is already an established actor (a superstar, to be precise) of Mollywood with hits also in Kollywood and Tollywood. Nominating him in a debutant category for Bollywood films makes about as much sense as Hollywood nominating Priyanka Chopra as a debutant. **   Related links: Best Bollywood Films 2018: When “small” cinema got big and viewers snubbed conventional industry ‘wisdom’ Director’s Cut: Meghna Gulzar on Alia, Raazi, Muslim bashing and insecurities that lead to majoritarianism Director’s Cut: Shoojit Sircar on Varun Dhawan, the inspiration for October, and Mom Best Mollywood Films 2018: The gems that redeemed a largely terrible year for Malayalam cinema