Before the actual festival kicks off, SAIFF 2012 got started with the  1st Annual South Asian Rising Star Film Awards. Adult film star and emerging Bollywood actress Sunny Leone and Jay Chandrasekhar, director of films like “Beerfest” and “Super Troopers”, hosted the event Tuesday night.

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Jay Chandrasekhar and Sunny Leone hosting the awards ceremony.

“With the South Asian Rising Star Film Awards we are taking another massive stride to not only just identify and develop talent, but also to recognize their achievements to the art and craft of cinema,” Shilen Amin, President and Founder of SAIFF, said before the awards. “To put them at the pedestal and show them off to the world as a talent to watch for. Nothing will give us immense pride than if these nominees go on to win accolades at the Globes, the Emmys and of course the Oscars in the years to come. And yes we want to own the bragging rights for the phrase ‘told you so.'”

HBO is a premier sponsor for the festival and Marvin Scott, an Associate Manager of Multicultural Marketing for HBO, spoke a little about the importance of South Asian cinema before the awards started as well.

“We at HBO are honored to be part of this wonderful and incredible journey. A journey full of possibilities; taking every opportunity to create bridges between the emerging talents in South Asia that the festival so masterfully curates and shares with us,” Scott said. “Our hope is that the filmmakers and storytellers from this community capture new audiences and take their place among the stars; of course in Hollywood.”

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HBO rep Marvin Scott with SAIFF President and Founder Shilen Amin at the South Asian Rising Stars Film Awards.

 

Below is the full list of award nominees with the winners in bold:

 

Best Lead Actor:

(1) Nawazuddin Siddiqui – Gangs of Wasseypur

(2) Mohammad Samad – Gattu

(3) Ayushman Khurana – Vicky Donor

(4) Ash Chandler – Love, Wrinkle Free

(5) Vinay Virmani – Breakaway

 

Best Supporting Actor:

(1) Gulshan Devaiah – Shaitan

(2) Parambrata Chatterjee – Kahaani

(3) Kunaal Roy Kapur – Delhi Belly

(4) Zeishan Quadri – Gangs of Wasseypur

(5) Russell Peters – Breakaway

 

Best Original Screenplay:

(1) Anurag Kashyap/Zeishan Quadri – GoW

(2) Sujoy Ghosh/Suresh Nair – Kahaani

(3) Akshat Verma – Delhi Belly

(4) Juhi Chaturvedi – Vicky Donor

(5) Gurvinder Singh – Alms of the Blind Horse

 

Best Lead Actress:

(1) Tanistha Chatterjee – Dekh Indian Circus

(2) Humaima Malik – Bol

(3) Parineeti Chopra – Ishaqzaade

(4) Rasika Dugal – Corrode

(5) Preeti Desai – Shor in the City

 

Best Supporting Actress:

(1) Seema Rahmani – Love, Wrinkle Free

(2) Sugandha Garg – Patang

(3) Noureen DeWulf – Breakaway

(4) Anjali Patil – Delhi in a Day

(5) Huma Qureshi – Gangs of Wasseypur

 

Best Cinematography:

(1) Rajeev Ravi – Gangs of Wasseypur

(2) Satyajit Pande – Kahaani

(3) Shankar Ramen – Patang

(4) Satya Nagpaul – Alms of a Blind Horse

(5) Madhi – Shaitan

 

Best Composer:

(1) Sneha Khanwalkar – Gangs of Wasseypur

(2) Ram Sampath – Dehli Belly

(3) Swarathma – Greater Elephant

(4) Amit Trivedi – Trishna

(5) Anirudh Ravichander – 3

 

Best Director:

(1) Gurvinder Singh – Alms of a Blind Horse

(2) Sujoy Ghosh – Kahaani

(3) Shoojit Sarkar – Vicky Donor

(4) Prashant Bhargava – Patang

(5) Karan Gour – Corrode

 

Best Feature Film:

(1) Kahaani

(2) Vicky Donor

(3) Patang

(4) Gattu

(5) Corrode