The 12th Sanskriti kala Darpan Awards were presented on Saturday 24th March 2012 at the MMRDA Grounds, Bandra kurla Complex in a big way; but the poor turn out of recipients to collect their awards, left a bad taste to the show. The show had the presence of not only two big politicians from the Centre, namely the Energy Minister Mr. Sushilkumar Shinde and Tourism Minister Mr. Subhodkant Sahay, but also some Bollywood personalities like Waheeda Rehman, Poonam Dhillon,Kiran Kumar Rati Agnihotri and others. The Grand old lady of Cinema Ms. Sulochana didi, was felicitated by Waheeda Rehman. Another veteran actress Sulbha Deshpande received the prestigious Gaurav Puraskar 2012 from the chief guests Mr. Sushilkumar Shinde and Subodhkant Sahay.

The attendance of top stars from Marathi film industry was very poor and that disappointed many invitees, who had gathered at this huge venue to have a glimpse of their favourite stars. Only few of them like Bharat Jadhav, Makarand
Sanskruti Kala Darpan Awards
Anaspure, Mahesh Kothare, Neha Pendse, Madhura Velankar, Mohan Joshi, Aniket Vishwasrao, Anand Ingale, Kanchan Adhikari, Smita Jaykar and few others were present on this occasion. Pushkar Shrotri and Kedar Shinde played the show anchors but there was a lot of confusion created for them, due to lack of coordination between the back stage management and script providers. They were not even informed about the absence of the guests who were supposed to give away the awards. Some of the presenters like Mr. Vijay Patkar were called twice to give away the awards. Sometimes there were three people called on the stage and only one could be present. This resulted confusion between the anchors . On one particular occasion, Pushkar Shrotri, literally apologized and also suggested one of the representative of the awardees to sit somewhere close to the dais, to avoid wastage of time.

The recipients of the awards whose names were called to receive the awards were made to seat at far away places in the enclosure, from where it took at least 3 to 4 minutes for them to walk towards the dais. This resulted in a lot of time wastage, due to which the organizers had to literally wind up the show in the last phase, without announcing the nominees; to meet the deadline of the loud speaker. But, by that time 50% of the audience had already left the venue. Hope the organizers, who are doing a good job for the past 11 years, would take precautions next time.

In the Film’s category, ‘Balgandharva’ bagged a maximum of 5 awards in different categories, while ‘Deool’ bagged four awards. But, the actual beneficiaries were absent. On their behalf the PR person of the film ‘Balgandharva’ found her way through an obstacle race, every time to receive the awards on behalf of the people connected with this film. For different category awards won by film ‘Deool’, the daughter of the Producer, received the same. Now, to say something about the entertainment programme, the dance item presented by Aniket Vishwasrao was good but the fashion show was a waste of time. The fusion was just okay but the rest of the programmes were not really entertaining.

This year, there were cash prizes given to the 3 Best films and Dramas. In the film’s category, ‘Shala’ received the cash award of Rs.2 lakhs, followed by Rs.1.5 lakhs by ‘Khel Mandala’and Rs.1 Lakh by ‘Deool’. In the Drama section, ‘Sukhanshi Bhandato Aamhi’ bagged the 1st prize of Rs.1.5 lakhs, followed by Rs.1 lakh by ‘Keshava Madhava’ and Rs.75,000/- by Mee Revati Deshpande’. In the Television channels category, Star Majha bagged the best news channel award, while Amit Bhandari received the Best Male Anchor’s award. The award in the female category went to Jayanti bamne of Zee 24 taas. IBN Lokmat’s ‘The Great Bhet’ programme presented by Nikhil Wagle, bagged the best Talk show award. But, he was not present.

The best actor’s award in film category was shared between Mangesh Desai and Subodh Bhave. While Murnal Kulkarni was declared as the best actress. In the professional Drama category too, the best actor award was shared between Mr. Mohan Joshi and Chinmay Mandlekar, while the best actress award went to Madhura Velankar. In the experimental plays category, Akshar Kothari and Shravni Pillay bagged the best actor and actress award respectively.

In the TV serials section, ‘Suvasini’ was declared as the best serial, while Gauri Nalawade and Pankaj Vishnu received the best actress and best actor awards. The best faces of the year awards went to Adinath Kothari, Neha Pendse; while the most impressive actor and actress from film and drama respectively went to Milind Gavli and Pooja Pawar.