Rakesh Sarang and his Cams Club artistes celebrated their happiest moment on Friday late night, as most of their family members in the ongoing Marathi TV serial ‘Pinjara’ bagged maximum, i.e. 7 out of 22 awards presented at Zee Marathi’s ‘Utsav Natyacha’ (Festival of Relations) popular Viewer’s choice awards at Bhaidas auditorium, Vile Parle, Mumbai. ‘Guntata Hriday Hey’ with five and ‘Kunku’ with three were close to follow in the fiction format. In the non fiction format of reality shows, ‘Marathi Paul Padate Pudhe’ bagged three, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ shared two while Aadesh Bandekar bagged two awards for his ‘Home Minister’, for being the best anchor and presenting the best Non Fiction show.

There weren’t many surprises in the best actor /actresses and other character’s category, as they were judged on Viewer’s choice. This year the best family was the Killedar family, while the best serial was ‘Pinjara’. Nayana (Mrunal Deshpande) received the best Heroine award for her performance in ‘Guntata Hriday Hey’, while Veer ( Bhushan Pradhan) bagged the best Hero award for the first time. Priya Bapat received the Popular female anchor’s award for her presentation in ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ show. Others who received the awards were the popular characters Janaki (female) in ‘Kunku’, and Mayak (Male) in ‘Guntata Hriday Hey’.

Mrunal Kulkarni went on to bag a double with her character of Naina being declared the best mother’s character, while her daughter in the serial- Devi received Special Child artiste award. Mrunmayee Deshpande also bagged a double when Janaki – Ganesh were declared as Best Sibblings. Bhushan too won a double when the popular couple of Veer and Anandi played by Sanskriti Bargude were declared the award. The other winners were Best father – Macchindra (Pinjara), Best Villain – tatya (Pinjara) and Best Vamp – Akka ( Pinjara). The best Supporting character awards went to Vishwasrao ( Guntata Hriday Hey) and Shalini ( Pinjara) in the male and female categories respectively. Ajay-Atul and Shrirang Godbole received the awards for Best Judge (Sa Re Ga Ma) and Best Lyricist (Marathi Paul Padate Pudhe) category. The best fresh face of the year went to – Anjali ( played by Tejaswini Pandit) in the serial ‘Ekach Ya Janmi Janu’ . Was that a move to accommodate a talented actress like her, in the awards category? Perhaps it was a special award given by the Sponsors ‘Waman Hari Pethe Jewelers’ as the chief of the company – Mr. Ulhas Pethe presented a special trophy.

Pushkar Shroti and Jitendra Joshi played the role of programme anchors with their gimmicks on the programme concept designed by Sachin Mote and Sanjay Mone. In the variety entertauiment section all the popular female artistes like Suhas Joshi, Mrunmayee Deshpande, Sukanya Kulkarni, Mrunal Dusanis, Baby Shruti paid tributes to veteran Marathi film makers, by performing on the old popular songs like ‘Ghanashyam Sundara..’, ‘Gori Gori Paan..’, Bai bai mann ..’, ‘Arey sansar Ra Sansaar..’, and ‘Dev Jari Maj Kadhi Bhetala,’. They received a standing ovation from the crowd. Others to perform were Renuka Shahane gave a surprise through an event in the form of a dance number on ‘Hawa havai…’ . She was suitably dressed up in Red clothes with a specially designed Red feathers as head gear.

The event that was stretched too long for about 40 minutes was that of Mika Singh singing all the Bollywood dance numbers. But, some celebrities in the crowd welcomed the same. Kranti Redkar, who was present on the occasion, even went up on the stage and twisted her legs. In comparison, the orchestra and songs ‘Break up ke Baad’ perfromed by Dadar Youth Club lead by Sachin Pathak and group was short and well presented. Actor Sachin Pilgaonkar also performed a dance from his forthcoming film ‘Ticha Baap Tyacha Baap’. He was full of engery and also received a standing ovation from the audience. Vaibhav Mangale, Anand Ingale and Bhalchandra Kadam performed comedy skits to entertain the audience.

Other celebrities present on the occasion and subsequent party were Mahesh Manjrekar, Rajiv Patil, Sunil Barve, Girija Oak, Aniket Vishwasrao, Umesh Kamat, Aditi Saragdhar Smita Tambe, Ashutosh Rana, Sulekha Talwalkar, Mohan Agashe, Chandrakant Kulkarni, Bharat Jadhav ,Sanjay Jadhav, Vinay Apte, Bhargavi Chirmule, Shweta Mehendale and Poorva Gokhale, Ankush Choudhary and Abhijeet Khandekar.