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The Channel [V] Awards Chat

Rediff (Sat Nov 30 23:22:53 1996 )

Shobha De looking beautiful as ever in white and silver. She was witty and suave and gave her version in five minutes of how to produce a good music video.

An aside on Anupam Kher - he was supposed to have presented the award for Best Film Song, but what to do? Flight from Bangalore late tha... etc... so he will now present the award for Best Production Values instead... and Kher says he knows the award is going to go to Lez and Hari - okay, okay, Colonial Cousins - who are his favourites anyway. Alisha and Mehnaz are "okay", he says, though he personally likes Ghazals and laments that there are no good ghazal singers around these days. (Hariharan and company, hello out there, you getting this?)... Kher's favourite instrument is the piano, and if he were pressed to name one bit of music more than any other that he likes, he would opt for the theme track in Godfather. As for C.Cousins, what Kher likes about their songs, he says, is the way they have used raga and fusion together...

Bappi Lahiri sang Tamba Tamba, keeping the audience in hysterics with his MUJHIC (music). The crowd was booing, and he announced the award for his favorite group in the best dance song cat. Macarena by Los Del Rio.

Hey, good going here for Lucky Ali - who, just to add a touch of trivia to the proceedings, is the nephew of the legendary Meena Kumari. Lucky's soulful music has found a huge audience, particularly among the women, he has an explanation for that. "Women are quieter and gentler than men, that is why they are better able to respond to my music," he told us earlier.

La Bouche is performing Won't Ya Be My Lover in an unannounced entry. This is a total surprise and the crowd's loving every minute of it.

Incidentally, music's gain was actually the silver screen's loss - Lucky first started off wanting to be an actor, and debuted in Shyam Benegal's Trikaal, where he played Erasmo, the young Portuguese doctor who comes home to get married. He worked with Benegal again in Discovery of India, in which he played Ashoka's brother Tissa, who was instrumental in drawing him towards a path of non-violence. He also acted with Pucky Ali in Hamare Tumhare.

"Lucky," recalls Benegal, who gave him that break, "was a good actor but could not get into Hindi commercial cinema because, in those days, he had one leg in movies and one in music."

By the way, Ali must be smoking more than his quota tonight - after the first award he won tonight - Best Debut Album - he said, "I'm going to smoke a cigarette and go mad!" Now he can go madder, he's won another big one. But what's with this smoking thing?- "Smoking was more of an act of rebellion, than of recreation or escape."

Oh well, after those two awards, if Lucky is still rebelling, then he's really one without a cause...

But guys backstage are worrried. The way things are going, it looks like Channel V has crossed the police Cinderella hour of 11 pm. The time's around 11.30. The crowd's converted the ground to a mini disco, dancing betwen the chairs. The crowd, meanwhile is yelling for Led Zepp.

Funny thing about Bappi Lahiri, he has no pretensions... while the Annu Maliks of this world talk of 'inspiration', Bappi is the cheerful plagiarist. "Arre, nakkal karne ke liye akkal chahiye," he once told an interviewer. Nice try, there...

BACK HERE: well, things are a little bit low right now but what i hear is that BRYAN ADAMS IS GONNA BE PERFORMING RIGHT AFTER COLONIAL CPOUSINS...WAIT a minute...the crowds screaming...Just, wanna let you know it's bryan

BACK HERE: well, things are a little bit low right now but what i hear is that BRYAN ADAMS IS GONNA BE PERFORMING RIGHT AFTER COLONIAL CPOUSINS...WAIT a minute...the crowds screaming...Just, wanna let you know it's bryan

The crowd's having a ball out there, folks... now that all the anger generated by the late start is forgotten in the euphoria of music, glitz and glamour, the houseful audience is partying... it's a happening scene, and BRYAN ADAMS is the undisputed star... there he goes, singing The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You... and guess what, everybody, including the backstage people, have rushed up front to get a glimpse of the star. In fact, the media room, where people were falling on top of each other a minute ago, is suddenly empty, I am the only one here - and if I didn't have to update you guys, I would have gone up front too... Adams is in great voice!

BACK HERE: well, things are a little bit low right now but what i hear is that BRYAN ADAMS IS GONNA BE PERFORMING RIGHT AFTER COLONIAL CPOUSINS...WAIT a minute...the crowds screaming...Just, wanna let you know it's bryan

When the music's this good, the awards take a backseat... but here, for those of you who might have missed some of our periodic updates from the scene, is the list of winners...

Okay: we have got the list of winners, so here it is... Best Dance: Los del Rio for Macarena. Best Indian pop song: Lezz and Hari for Sa Ni Dha Pa. Best Video director: Mahesh Mathai. Lifetime Achievement: Led Zep and Queen. Best intl pop album: Sting (Mercury Falling). Best Indian pop album (Colonial Cousins) who also win for best production values. They are all the Channel V Viewers Choice winners. The Freddie Mercury award goes to believe it or not, Alisha Chinai!

Sorry, just in case you were wondering why this other Bryan Adams post is repeating itself, it's a little glitch here, folks - we got a couple of computers hooked into this commentary box, and one of them is hung for a bit... sorry...

Another apology... this time for keeping quiet... but with Adams in such sensational form, I'm, like, all ears... be right back, peoples, with more happenings from the most happening place in Mumbai right now...

Hysterical? That's a pretty tame term for what's happening here at the moment. The music and the audience's applause in just continuously smberging over this huge stadium. People are standing on their chairs. At times, two people on a chair.

Nostradamus' record as the greatest prophet of them all is certainly under no threat - at least not from Lucky Ali and Colonial Cousins. When Lucky was in the REdiff office the other day, he said he didn't expect to win a single award. He won three. As for Lez and Hari... "If we have been nominated for nine categories, we will win in at least two or three." They came close - they've bagged four...

Everyone going crazy, including the pyrotechnics. People are crying. The channel V awards have been converted into an impromtu rock show. I don't think the crowd's satisfied with this teaser though. Cries of once more rent the air, but Led Zepp are not going to oblige. "It's really great to be back in Mumbai". It's once more time once again. How's V gonna control this crowd.

Bian's gone totally hysterical. Her hair's on edge. And a totally crazy Shaheen has just jumped in. She didn't even mind Suparn mashing her feet.

They've got the best response - cause they are the best. 20 years ago, when they were in Bombay, they played at a seedy club called Slip Disc. Today, the crowd's begging for more. And they are willing to do anything to hear them for a few minutes more. But Led Zepp are getting into their car as we type so we won't get them live. The other bit of sad news is that we've lost Bian and Shaheen to the Led Zepp mania that's swept the stadium.

Stage darkened and the audience went wild as the legendary duo from Led Zep, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page stepped onto stage, joined by Queen's Roger Taylor on drums, and Remo on guitar. And the minute they struck the first chord, sang the first word, you could feel the energy in the air. The music moved us all the moved us in every way. Their performance of Rock and Roll was, without seeming like I'm gushing, INCREDIBLE, FABULOUS, ELECTRIFYING. When the song ended, the stadium rocked with pleas for just one more song, PLEASE. But, just as quickly and quietly as they came in, they left with only their music ringing in our ears and a memory that will last a lifetime.

The Best Pop Album is - as if you needed - Colonial Cousins. In his acceptance speech, Lez said that when they wrote the song in 1992, they never expected it to become so big." Hari, for his part, spent his time at the mike thanking everybody - mother, wife, children, Magnasound, Clea PR... sorry, there's a lot more in the "grateful thanks to..." list, but we ran out of paper... :-)

Mehnaz is performing Miss India at the moment. She and the dancers are giving a lively and energetic performance

The show's still going strong...

The Channel [V] viewer's choice award goes to Colonial cousins. This follows their MTV Viewers Choice award, which they picked up earlier this year.

The hosts are winding up now, a slightly disappointing and anti-climactic end, after the mass hysteria generated by Page and Plant. The crowd has settled down, the adrenalin rush over.

What some of the winners and guests said...