Twenty-five top women achievers from varied fields were felicitated at the Kelvinator GR8! FLO Women Awards 2008, held at the ITC Grand Maratha, Mumbai. The mega awards ceremony that recognized women, who have contributed in their field of work and excelled in their work, will be telecast on Sunday, March 9, at 8.00 p.m only on Sony Entertainment Television.
Said Shashi Ranjan, Publisher Gr8! Magazine, “This is the seventh year in a row that we have felicitated women achievers in various fields for their contribution to their respective professions and society as a whole. Through this platform we recognize the achievements of women from Music, Television, Sports, Fashion, Literature, Dance, Journalism, Social Service, Film, Business & Advertising… In addition to this, a young achiever and a special honor were also bestowed this year.”
“This year’s felicitation was centered around our campaign against female foeticide called ‘Beti’ which is a nationwide awareness campaign that we have launched to highlight the issue of gender bias and the alarmingly disproportionate male: female ratio in the country. It is a malice that has struck all sections of society and needs to weeded out at the earliest,” added Anu Ranjan, Co-Publisher Gr8!
The evening saw a dazzling mix of women achievers from various fields which includes personalities like Nita Ambani, Priety Zinta, Waheeda Rehman among others and spectacular performances by Alka Yagnik, Surveen Chawla, Jaswir Kaur, Kushal Punjabi, Kashmera Shah, Krushna, Rakhi Sawant, Abhishek, Suhasi and Gauri Nigudkar.
Also present at the high profile awards ceremony was Hritik Roshan whose presence brightened the evening. Others who graced the occasion were Sheriff of Mumbai Indu Shahani, producer-director Yash Chopra, industrialist Ness Wadia, film & TV actress Aruna Irani, Mayor Shubha Raul, music composer Annu Malik, fashion designer Neeta Lulla, former Miss India Yukta Mookhey, TV actor Rohit Roy, film actress Poonam Dhillon, film maker Ramesh Sippy and many others
The awards ceremony, which was hosted by Maninee De Mishra and Sumeet Raghvan, was interspersed with great performances and loads of entertainment. Don’t miss the Kelvinator GR8! FLO Women Awards 2008 on Sunday March 9 at 8.00 p.m only on Sony Entertainment Television.
It was also a platform for ‘beti’ a movement against the Female Foeticide, rampant all across the country, which is threatening the Gender-balance as created by Mother Nature.
In the Event, Women-achievers from a vast spectrum of genres were accorded Honours. The roster of those honoured read like an unparalleled count of distinction as accomplished by Women.
Hence, there were such esteemed receivers as
Ella Bhatt (SEWA) for Social-Activist,
Anita Ratnam (Bharat Natyam) for Dance,
Dr Suman Sahai (Genetics) for Science,
Chitra Ramakrishna (DMD, NSE) for Finance,
Patricia Mukhim, Director - Indigenous Women’s Resources Centre for Journalism,
Anita Nair for Literature,
Meera Patwardhan, Director - Leap Frog Strategy Consulting for Advertising,
Sangita Singh, Senior Vice President – Enterprise Application Services, Wipro Technologies for Information & Technology,
Anju Dodiya for Fine-Arts,
Anita Dongre, Creative Director & Designs India / Clay Wellness Centre, Grass Roots Organic Clothing Line for Fashion Designing,
Falguni Nayar, Managing Director - Kotak Investment Bank for Banking,
Anjali Chawla, Director – Projects - BPTP Ltd. for FLO Entrepreneur,
Shobana Kamineni, Executive Director - Apollo Hospitals for Medicine & Healthcare,
Subha Raul, Mayor, Mumbai for GR8! Meow 104.8 FM Award,
Suchitra K Ella, Co Founder & Jt. Managing Director - Bharat Biotech for Entrepreneur,
Pallavi Shroff, Partner (Corporate) - Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. for Law,
Aruna Irani for Television,
Dr. Indu Shahani, Sheriff of Mumbai & Principal -H R College of Commerce & Economics for Education.
There were also special laurels bestowed upon Waheeda Raheman (Lifetime Achievement), Nita Ambani (GR8! Scroll of Honour), Preity Zinta (GR8! Special Laurel) and Maharani Gayatri Devi (GR8! Golden Laurel).
The Award-presenters were also highly pre-eminent personalities from various walks of life, like Honourable Dr. Subbarami Reddy, Union Minister of State for Mines, Justice P N Bhagwati, Yash Chopra, Saurabh Dhoot, Anil Khera, Ramesh Sippy, Hrithik Roshan, Bobby Bedi, Dr Jagmohan Mundhra, Ms. Smita Thakarey, Madhur Bhandarkar, Prem Sagar, Prem Chopra, Anu Malik, Talat Aziz, Bhappi Lahri, Rohit Roy, Jaspinder Narula and Anu & Shashi Ranjan, besides others.
The evening was punctuated by pulse-pounding performances by Alka Yagnik, Rakhi Sawant & Abhishek Awasti, Kashmira & Krushna, Jaswir Kaur & Kushal Punjabi among others. Surween Chawla paid a special song & dance tribute to Waheeda Rehman by presenting her immortal numbers like Aaj phir jine ki, Rangeela re, Piya tose naina lage re…!
The glitterati attending the occasion were, J.D Majethia, Shaad Randhawa, Sameer Dattani, Yukta Mookhey, Dipssikha, Neeta Lulla, Rajshree Thakur, Yogesh Lakhani, Shama Sikander, Rajan Mittal, Penaaz Masani, Atul Dodiya, Sadiq Ali, Poonam Dhillon, Simone Singh, Anjan Srivastav, Ajay Dey, Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla, Ishaan Raina, Shardul Shroff, Anil Srivatsa, Poonam Gulati, Yash Tonk, Gauri Tonk, Tina Kuwajerwala, Ajay Krish, Sudeepa Singh, Arjun Bijlani, Priyanka Bassi, Vikas Manaktala, Aparna Tilak, Mihir Mishra, Amit Behl & Vaibhavi and many more.
After the ceremony, the celebrity guests move to cocktails & dinner, where they went on hobnobbing with one another till the wee hours of morning, under the canopy of GR8! TV.
