'Fresh faces' Gajraj Rao, Manoj Pahwa win Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor at Reel Movie Awards

The second News18 Reel Movie Awards, held on 26 March in Mumbai, brought in a duo of new faces as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Badhaai Ho's Gajraj Rao and Mulk's Manoj Pahwa were the two 'fresh' faces to pick up the awards. This past weekend, Ranbir Kapoor won the Best Actor trophy and Vicky Kaushal and Rao shared the Best Supporting Actor honours at the Filmfare Awards. Here, both actors in their 50s beat out their young competition for the best performance of the year.

Rao said he accepted the award on behalf of his fellow nominees and stated, "I am always looking to learn and explore new things and roles every day. While doing cinema, I have also stepped into the digital space. It’s a wonderful era for actors, technicians, writers and everyone, because content is doing the talking now. It’s the golden era of cinema, one that we can all enjoy."

Reel Movie Awards in pictures

In the family comedy Badhaai Ho (2018), directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Rao played the head of the Kaushik family who has to deal with being a father all over again at 50. His awkwardness at breaking the news to his adult and teenage sons was pitch perfect.

Pahwa, a veteran character actor of more than 45 films, played a Muslim father who is arrested and put on trial for terrorism after his son joins a terror group in Anubhav Sinha's Mulk (2018). Amazingly, it was the first award of the actor's life.

Thanking the Reel Awards, the actor said, "The line-up of nominations was so amazing. It feels great to see quality artistes and performances being recognized. It is a lovely feeling to be considered amongst such great artistes in the country. Thank you [writer-director] Anubhav Sinha for believing in me and giving me a role that I could perform so well."

Here's a full list of winner from the News18 Reel Movie Awards 2019:

Best Film: Badhaai Ho

Best Actor (Male): Gajraj Rao - Badhaai Ho

Best Actor (Female): Alia Bhatt - Raazi

Best Director: Sriram Raghavan - Andhadhun

Best Supporting Actor (Male): Manoj Pahwa - Mulk

Best Supporting Actor (Female): Surekha Sikri - Badhaai Ho

Best Cinematography: Pankaj Kumar - Tumbbad

Best Screenplay: Akshat Ghildial - Badhaai Ho  

Best Dialogues: Anubhav Sinha - Mulk

Best Song: 'Daryaa' - Amit Trivedi (Manmarziyaan)

Best Lyrics: 'Dilbaro' - Gulzar (Raazi)

Best Playback Singer (Male): Ammy Virk and Shahid Mallya - 'Daryaa' (Manmarziyaan)

Best Playback Singer (Female): Harshdeep Kaur - 'Dilbaro' (Raazi)

Best Score: Daniel B George - Andhadhun

Best Editing: Nitin Baid - Raazi

Best Production Design: Nitin Zihani Choudhary - Tumbbad

Best Costume: Sheetal Sharma - Manto

Best Sound: Kunal Sharma - Tumbbad