In a night that honoured excellence, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Wizcraft International Entertainment instituted the first ever Chevrolet FICCI Frames Excellence Awards to highlight the success stories of the year gone by. FICCI Frames 2010, the largest convention in Asia on the world of entertainment provides a perfect platform to celebrate excellence in the world of entertainment.

The ‘Chevrolet Ficci Frames Excellence Awards’ celebrated excellence across four major categories, music, radio, television and cinema. A fitting conclusion to the FICCI Frames 2010, the star-studded presentation ceremony saw the very best of the media and entertainment in action on the Red carpet and honouring each other.

The inaugural edition of the Chevrolet FICCI Frames Excellence Awards is being presented by Chevrolet Motors in partnership with Idea Cellular, Gitanjali Lifestyle, Moser Baer and Bacardi Martini.

After having long established his musical prowess in India, the maestro, A. R. Rahman cemented his legacy over the last year, opening the worldwide doors for talent from the subcontinent, befitting him the honour of Global Icon of the Year. Suave actor, Ranbir Kapoor took home the Chevrolet FICCI Frames Entertainer of the Year, for delivering a string of box office hits and winning a place in the heart of movie-goers with his wide-ranging roles in films like ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’, ‘Rocket Singh – Salesman of the Year’ and ‘Wake Up Sid’.

A major highlight of the night was the award for Global Entertainer of the Year that was bestowed upon Indian Cinema’s Badshah himself, Shah Rukh Khan. He was honoured for his dominance over the world of entertainment, never ceasing to entertain, be it through his films, television or his contribution to the world of cricket.

Box office sensation, ‘Paa’ swept the Best Actors categories with Vidya Balan receiving the award for Best Actor of the Year: Films – Female, while her on-screen son, Amitabh Bachchan received the Best Actor of the Year: Films – Male for his portrayal of the endearing 12 year-old Auro, afflicted by progeria. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani’s 2009 masterpiece, ‘3 Idiots’ took home the Most Successful Film of the Year and Hirani was lauded as Best Director of the Year, for the same.

Television entertainment saw its share of winners, with General Entertainment Channel, Colors coming atop with the Most Successful Television Channel of the Year and Zee TV’s hit reality dance show, ‘Dance India Dance’ declared the Most Successful Non-Fiction Show of the Year.  Hindi soap, ‘Uttaran’, took home the Most Successful Drama Series of the Year. Ayub Khan of ‘Uttaran’ fame grabbed the Best Actor of the Year: TV – Male award and the gorgeous, Ulka Gupta of ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’ took home the Best Actor of the Year: TV-Female.

The night also saw a melodious opening performance from A Band Called Nine with lead singer, Shilpa Rao. The recipient of Best Music Album of the Year winner, Pritam also gave the audience a unique musical performance. The musician was lauded by guest presenters Salim-Suleiman for the music of ‘Love Aaj Kal’. Radio Mirchi was declared the Most Successful Radio Channel of the Year.

Speaking about the Chevrolet FICCI Frames Excellence Awards, Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, said, “The awards have been instituted to celebrate and promote excellence in the media and entertainment sector and, we in FICCI are privileged to honour some of the most outstanding leaders who have scaled pinnacles of excellence in their fields. We shall constantly strive to recognize high talent in keeping with our perpetual quest of business excellence.”

Roy Kapur stated: “Nearly every Indian title is camcorded and available in pirate street markets on average two to three days after legitimate theatrical release. While the industry has come together to provide theatre security and anti-camcord trainings, our efforts will be futile without the government passing anti-camcord legislation to hold perpetrators liable for this form of copyright theft.” MPAA chairman Dan Glickman said, “These last two years of Hindi co-productions, joint television ventures, shared distribution rights, joint ownership of technology companies – has all led to Indian and MPA member studios working in tandem. Such cooperation fosters conducive environments that allow movies like Slumdog Millionaire and My Name is Khan to achieve global box office success.

And as successful as we have been or can be, we need to come together to overcome common obstacles to our joint success. That is why we are here today to announce the launch of this coalition. While piracy is damaging creative communities across the world, it need not be inevitable if we take steps to collectively address this problem.”