Bahus steal the show at third Indian Telly Awards

At a glittering function, which saw the who's who of tellydom grace the occasion, the third Indian Telly Awards were presented at the Tulip Star Hotel, in Mumbai, on November 21, 2003.

Predictably, the bahus stole the show, with the prestigious Best Actor of the Year (female) presented jointly to Smriti Malhotra Irani aka Tulsi of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Saakshi Tanwar aka Parvati of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. The Best Actor of the Year (male) was presented jointly again to Aman Verma, who plays Aditya Pratap in Kehta Hai Dil on STAR Plus, and veteran actor Shivaji Satam, who has been essaying the role of ACP Pradyuman for the last four years on Sony's popular crime thriller CID.

Peter Mukherjea was adjudged CEO of the Year while Balaji Telefilms and UTV shared honours for the Production House of the Year award.

The STAR Plus team had reason to smile with the channel adjudged the Entertainment Channel of the Year, Aaj Tak was the News Channel of the Year, MTV, Music Channel of the Year and ZEE Cinema, Hindi Movie Channel of the Year.

Aroona Irani's Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand was adjudged the TV programme of the Year as well as the Best Weekly Serial of 2002 along with Sanjivani - A Medical Boon, on STAR Plus.

Des Mein had a couple of other credits with Irani along with Sourabh Narang, who directs the gritty Haqeeqat on Sahara Manoranjan, walking away with the trophy for Best Director of the Year while child artiste Hansika Motwani, who plays Tina in Des Mein, was adjudged Child Artiste of the Year.

Pankaj Kapur, who plays Musaddilal in SAB TV's Office Office, walked with the trophy for Best Actor in a Comic role (male), while veteran actress Supriya Pathak Kapoor, who plays Hansa Parekh in the comedy Khichdi on STAR Plus, was the winner in the female category.

Urvashi Dholakia, who plays the evil Komolika in Balaji's Kasautii Zindagi Kay, was presented the trophy for Best Actor in a Negative role (female) while the trophy in the male category was jointly shared by Mohnish Behl for his role in Sony's Devi and Manoj Joshi for his corrupt politician act in STAR Plus' Kehta Hai Dil.

Other notable awards were, TV Anchor of the Year presented to Farooque Sheikh for Jeena Isika Naam Hai, News Anchor of the Year presented to Prabhu Chawla of Aaj Tak, Lifetime Achievement Award presented to media baron Ramoji Rao, founder of the ETV empire, and TV Personality of the Year to Smriti Malhotra Irani.

The NDTV-STAR News combine, ZEE TV and CNBC were some of the other significant winners of the evening. © 2003 agencyfaqs!