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Scam 1992, Bebaak, Eeb Allay Ooo! win big at Critics' Choice Awards

The awards were handed out to the cast and makers of web-series, films and shorts in a virtual ceremony on 14 February.

Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story has yet another feather in its cap. The SonyLIV series directed by Hansal Mehta bagged three awards — Best Series, Best Actor and Best Writing — at the Critics' Choice Awards which was held virtually on 14 February.

Sushmita Sen, who returned to acting with the title role in Disney+ Hotstar’s Aarya, was named Best Actress, while Amazon Prime’s Paatal Lok walked away with the Best Supporting Actor (Abhishek Banerjee) and Best Supporting Actress (Swastika Mukherjee) Awards.

Prateek Vats’s satire Eeb Allay Ooo! was named Best Film and Vats was honoured with the Best Director trophy. The film, starring Shardul Bhardwaj, will be streamed on Netflix from 18 February. In the acting categories, Manoj Bajpayee was awarded Best Actor for his portrayal of a retired policeman in Devashish Makhija’s Bhonsle (2020), while Tillotama Shome picked yet another award for her nuanced portrayal as a maid, Ratna, in Rohena Gera’s critically acclaimed Sir (2020).

The late filmmaker Sachy was posthumously awarded Best Writing honours for his Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020), while Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad (2020) starring Taapsee Pannu won the Gender Sensitivity Award for its subject.

In the short film section, Shazia Iqbal’s Bebaak won the Best Film, Best Director and Best Writing Awards while Adil Hussain and Amruta Subhash bagged the Best Actor and Actress Awards for Meal and The Booth respectively.

In a statement, Anupama Chopra, chairperson of the Film Critics Guild, said “I am thrilled that in such a difficult year, we could celebrate storytelling with this much energy and sparkle! A big congrats to all the winners!”

See the full list of winners below:

Best Series: Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

Best Actor: Pratik Gandhi for Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

Best Actress: Sushmita Sen for Aarya

Best Supporting Actor: Abhishek Banerjee for Paatal Lok

Best Supporting Actress: Swastika Mukherjee for Paatal Lok

Best Writing: Sumit Purohit, Saurav Dey, Vaibhav Vishal and Karan Vyas for Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

Best Film: Eeb Allay Ooo!

Best Director: Prateek Vats for Eeb Allay Ooo!

Best Actor: Manoj Bajpayee for Bhonsle

Best Actress: Tillotama Shome for Sir

Best Supporting Actor: Pankaj Tripathi for Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl

Best Supporting Actress: Sai Pallavi for Paava Kadhaigal

Best Writing: Sachy for Ayyappanum Koshiyum

Best Cinematography: Siddharth Diwan for Bulbbul

Best Editing: Mahesh Narayanan for C U Soon

Gender Sensitivity Award: Thappad

Best Short Film: Bebaak

Best Director: Shazia Iqbal for Bebaak

Best Actor: Adil Hussain for Meal

Best Actress: Amruta Subhash for The Booth

Best Writing: Shazia Iqbal for Bebaak