MUMBAI: Now this is what is called an award function. Hosted at the much suave south Mumbai's NCPA, India's lead entertainment channel Star Plus struck the right chords in most places where it mattered in the Star Parivaar Awards (awards for the most popular characters and not actors, please note) last evening.

Star India CEO, Peter Mukerjea started the proceedings by undermining the role played by the cable operators. "Only if the consumer pays the cable operator ungrudgingly and regularly, the cable industry would survive. This in turn is very essential for the survival of the broadcasting industry," he said.

Quickly, the awards conferring process began. Of course, there were a few ifs and buts, but more about that later.

Aman Varma stood as the main anchor, while others like: Smriti Z Iraani-Sakshi Tanwar, Gurdeep Kohli-Arjun Punj, Manoj Joshi-Grusha Kapoor, Pooja Kanwal-Jaya Bhattacharya, Rohit Roy- Sonal Sehgal, Riva Bubber, Shabbir-Karishma Tanna, Sumeet Sachdev-Riva Bubber, paired as co-anchors for few segments to provide him with some breaks.

The evening belonged to Sangeeta Ghosh, Aamna Shariff, Smriti Z Iraani, Hiten Tejwani and Ekta Kapoor. While Ghosh, Shariff, Irani and Tejwani walked up the stage twice to receive two awards each, Kapoor enjoyed her glory from her front seat (sitting with her father Jetendra and brother Tusshar) as most of the awards went to characters from her serials only, viz. Kasauti Zindagii Kay, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii', Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.

The 28-year old creative head of Balaji Telefilms was seen grinning from ear to ear when Star India's COO, Sameer Nair walked up on stage to say a few words and raised many a laughs when he said that Deepak Sehgal (senior VP, content and programming) and Shailaja Kejriwal (Star Plus, creative director) were keen that they should have a special award to the favourite production house this year but the prospect sent a chill down his spine as he says, "I plan to stay in this city for a while."

Tejwani bagged the 'Best Beta' and 'Favourite Damad', while Iraani was honoured with 'Best Saas' and 'Favourite Ma'.

In his speech, Tejwani said, "Ekta had promised me that Karan on Star Plus will become bigger than Pratham (Kutumb) on Sony Entertainment Television."

Iraani got a little carried away and grabbed Apara Mehta up stage to say that she wanted to receive the 'Best Saas' Award from her reel life saas only. Her speech that followed was far too dramatic to be understood. This incident (read 'embarrassment') could well have been avoided.

Iraani had to share the 'Favourite Ma' award with Prerna (Shweta Tiwari) of Kasautii Zindagi Kay, who gave an expression of absolute disbelief when declared as a co-winner. Up stage while receiving the award from Jeetendra, Tiwari remarked, "I am ecstatic. Last year I received an award from the legendary Mr Bachchan, this year it is the man whose show has made me able and famous to get this honour." Tiwari was also labelled as the 'Best Bahu' for the same serial.

Mythological serials' specialist Ramanand Sagar was conferred the 'Lifetime Achievement Award'. The grand old man of television spoke a few words in favour of the new generation saying, "I am sure that this industry has a great future as it is in the right hands."

The winner who was visibly most excited was Monica Singh (Sai Deodhar) of Saara Akaash. She ran out of words caused by her overwhelming happiness, while holding the trophy aloft for 'Best Beti'.

Mihir Virani (Ronit Roy) who won the Best Pita award for Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi could not attend the show as he was indisposed; the exuberant brother Rohit received the trophy on his behalf.

One felt that most of the awards were justified, except for 'Favourite Devar' which went to Rishi (Shabbir) of Kahiin To Hoga. Ali Asgar who deserved the award last year for this honour, was sidelined this year too. The sadness on his face was to be seen to be believed. The viewers may have been guided by Shabbir's charming looks, but the fault lay in the fact that he had been nominated in a wrong category for sure. How can a devar who impregnates one of his bhabhi's sisters and has a live-in relationship with another sister, be slotted in the 'Favorite Devar' category?

The lighter moments of the show were provided by the Khichdi gang who took a dig on all the Star serials with statements like, "In Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand, we don't know till date that who was the real Dev, there is no kahani in any of the channel's serials, we must make it mandatory to start every show's name with the letter K because it almost guarantees that public will digest it no matter what it offers." Hansa (Supriya Pathak) performed brilliantly. Clearly, Pankaj Kapur's family (wife Supriya, son Shahid and of course he himself are a bundle of real talent). Later, Hansa was awarded the 'Best Jethani' award for her histrionics in Khichdi.

Some of the other highlights were items like: The voluptuous Sweta Keswani (ex-Avantika of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii) and the long-legged Tasneem Sheikh (Renuka of Bhabhi) making advances towards the cute-looking Rajeev Khandelwal, but Khandelwal breaking free from them and swinging passionately (the boy would do well to attend some dancing lessons, else how would he make it in films which is his next station?) to 'Suraj Hua Madham' (from K3G) with Aamna Shariff. Incidentally, the duo won the 'Best Jodi-India' award for their characters Sujal and Kashish respectively in Kahiin To Hoga, while the 'Best Jodi-UK' award went to Dev (Varun Badola) and Pammi (Sangeeta Ghosh) of Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand. The chemistry between Ghosh and Vadola was too evident on stage too and Ghosh made a clarification that though it was natural for them to get excited during the overtly romantic scenes the serial had, they managed to keep their feelings at bay.

Kashish also won the 'Best Bahen' award, thanked Ekta Kapoor (naturally), Rajeev Khandelwal (co-actor) and Anil Kumar (director) but did not thank Rohit Bakshi (her husband in the serial with who she had many scenes).

Other performers who impressed in the items between the long chain of awards (courtesy, an Indian family has too many relations) were Urvashi Dholakia (who won the Favourite Sout for Komolika of Kasautii Zindagi Kay - what else!- and said that she yearns for her dream of doing a positive role gets fulfilled!), Varun Badola (what an energetic dancer!) and Sangeeta Ghosh (who gyrated to the famous sexy number 'Laila O' Laila' from Qurbani).

The channel formally announced the induction of Nausheen Ali Sardar (who stormed out of Sony's Kkusum when the serial took a 20 year jump) into their parivaar. Clearly, Nausheen (who even danced to a number in the show which lasted for nearly three hours followed by a party at Athena which rocked till the wee hours of the morning) is all slated to strike a comeback on the small screen with a Star Plus project very soon.

All said and done, it was an enjoyable fare.

The other winners were:

Favourite Dada- Babuji (Anant)- Khichdi
Favourite Dadi- Ba (Sudha Shivpuri)- Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi
Favourite Bahu- Prerna (Shweta Tiwari)- Kasautii Zindagi Kay
Favourite Jadoii Kirdar- Jadooi Nani (Farida Jalal)- Shararat
Favourite Bachcha- Sneha- Kasautii Zindagi Kay
Favourite Bhabhi- Parvati (Sakshi Tanwar)- Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii
Favorite Action Star - Hatim (Raahil)- Hatim
Best Devrani-- Ganga Virani (Shilpa Saklani)- Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
Best Yogya Bahu- Nandini (Gauri Pradhan)- Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thi
Best Sasur- Babuji (Deepak Qazir)- Kasautii Zindagi Kay
Best Nanand- Pammi (Sangeeta Ghosh)- Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand
Favourite Pati- Sumeet (Hussain) - Kumkum: Pyaara Sa Bandhan
Favourite Patni - Kumkum (Juhi Parmar)- Kumkum: Pyaara Sa Bandhan.