| 1st Filmfare Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | 21 March 1954[1] |
| Site | Metro Cinema,Bombay |
| Hosted by | David |
| Highlights | |
| Best Film | Do Bigha Zamin |
| Most awards | Baiju Bawra &Do Bigha Zamin (2) |
The1stFilmfare Awards were held on 21 March 1954, honoring the best inHindi cinema in 1953.
That year they were known as the Clare Awards, afterClare Mendonça, a film critic ofThe Times of India who had died in the same year.[1]
Baiju Bawra &Do Bigha Zamin won 2 awards each, with the former winningBest Actress (forMeena Kumari) andBest Music Director (forNaushad for ''Tu Ganga Ki Mauj''), and the latter winningBest Film andBest Director (forBimal Roy), thus becoming the most-awarded films at the ceremony.
Dilip Kumar won his first of eightBest Actor awards for his performance inDaag.
In a short ceremony held atMetro Cinema in Bombay (now Mumbai), awards in only 5 categories were handed out.[1] The Chief Guest of function wasGeorge Allen, US Ambassador to India. The ceremony was compared by actorDavid, and it started with actressNalini Jaywant singing the national anthem. This was followed by song and dance performance by various actors, musical performances byTalat Mehmood,Geeta Roy andMohammed Rafi. Next two performances were classical dance performances byVyjayanthimala andSurya Kumari. The finale of the performance section was a folk-dance performance, "Lure of Rajasthan" byKamini Kaushal and her troupe.[2]
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,[3] 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 byBest Actress which was won byMeena Kumari forBaiju Bawra andBest Actor went toDilip Kumar forDaag.[2] Next, ace music directorNaushad won his first and only Filmfare Award, for Best Music forBaiju Bawra.[4] The final award, theBest Director was won byBimal Roy, present by Sonny Cordiero, a reader from Mumbai.[2]
Incidentally, Bimal Roy and Dilip Kumar were the first winners ofBest Director andBest Actor respectively, and remained almost 6 decades later, the ones with the most wins in either category, with 7 and 8 awards respectively. Additionally, Meena Kumari, who was the first winner forBest Actress, held the record for the most wins in the category (4) for 13 years, till her record was broken byNutan with her 5th win at the26th Filmfare Awards.[4] Fearing similar mob of fans as outsideMetro Cinema, the venue of the award party was not announced publicly. Later, around hundred invitees gathered atWellington Gymkhana Club.[2]
Hollywood starGregory Peck was invited to be the guest of honour at the awards but could not make it to the function since his flight from Colombo got delayed. However, Peck did attend the after-party banquet that followed the award night at Wellington Gymkhana Club, Mumbai.[2][5][6]
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| Best Film | |
|---|---|
| Best Director | Best Music Director |
| |
| Best Actor | Best Actress |
|
|
The following films had multiple wins
| Movie | Awards |
|---|---|
| Baiju Bawra | 2 |
| Do Bigha Zameen |
| Merit awards | |
|---|---|
| Critics' awards | |
| Technical awards | |
| Special awards | |
| Award ceremonies | |
