It was a grand show late evening on Friday, at Hotel Hyatt Regency Mumbai, when Zee Talkies presented the most prestigious awards ‘Maharashtracha Favourite Kon’ in various categories of Marathi Cinema. Anchored by actor – film maker Mahesh Manjrekar, the show presented skits, dances and Mimicry items performed by the popular artistes from Marathi stage, television and film industry. The organisers did not forget to pay tributes to late Bollywood film maker Yash Chopra, by presenting dances performed by Ankush Choudhary and Urmila Kanetkar on the romantic songs from his films.

The show began with ‘Fu Bai Fu’ Comedy TV show fame Nilesh Sable, Vaibhav Mangale & Bhahu Kadam performing skits , followed by a dance sequence by Manasi Naik in the company of Bhau kadam for the first time, beginning with ‘Chalao Na nainon Se Baan Re’. Manasi also went on to perform dances on some of the popular South Indian songs, displaying the actual glamour of south through her mini outfits. But, she did not forget to conclude with her favourite ‘Rikshawala’ song. There were mock items presented by Makarand Anaspure, Kranti Redkar and Hemangi kavi Dhumal , while Amruta Khanvilkar, Siddharth Jadhav, Mahesh Manjrekar and the team of young boys from forthcoming dance based film ‘Aaynaa Ka baayna’ performed, amid big applause from audience present on the occasion.

Urmila Dhangar & Avadhoot Gupte were adjudged as favoutrite singers of Maharashtra, while the favourite supporting artiste awards went to Jitendra Joshi(Jhakas) and Savita Malpekar (Kaksparsha). Vaibhav Mangale was awarded for playing best villain in Kaksparsha, while Lux Face of the year award went to Ketaki Mategaonkar. Ankush Choudhary, was declared the Style Icon for the third time this year, indicating that this year, there was no competition for him; having displayed his style outfits through ‘Jhakas’ and ‘No Entry PDA’. The best comedy film was ‘Jhakas’, while the best film’s award went to ‘Kaksparsha’. Mahesh Manjrekar was adjudged the best director, for the same film, in spite of tough competition from ‘Deool’, ‘Tukaram’ , ‘Shala’ and ‘Morya’.

The favourite actor and actress awards went to Sachin Khedekar( Kaksparsha) and Amruta Khanvilkar (Jhakas) and they received their awards from gorgeous Mrunal Kulkarni and evergreen Sunil Barve respectively. Besides the performing celebrity artistes and award winners mentioned above, other guests present were Sachin Pilgaonkar, Mrunal Kulkarni, Sunil Barve, Abhijit Gholap( producer of Deool and Bharatiya) , Ravi Jadhav, Medha Manjrekar, Kanchan Adhikari, Atisha Naik, Supriya Pathare, Sandeep Kulkarni, Sanjay Jadhav, Santosh Juvekar, Vijay Patkar, Deepa Parab, Sonali Kulkarni( Sr), Chandrakant kulkarni, Vidyadhar Joshi, Nagesh Bhosale, Nitin Chandrakant Desai, Manva Naik ( who welcomed the guests), Mr. Nikhil Sane, Business head of Zee Talkies along with other officials and Mr. Amey Khopkar, President of the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena Cine workers association.

This year’s show was a better presentation, compared to last year, with wonderful performances coming from Vaibhav Mangale, Bhau Kadam, Kranti Redkar and others. The absence of senior artistes like Ashok Saraf & Mahesh Kothare was felt. Moreover, there was no special guest from Bollywood this time, as one expected someone from ‘Jab Tak Hain Jaan’ as the film’s promo was played on the TV screens displayed on stage.