The Zee Gold Bollywood Awards 2001were held in New York at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island over the weekend. They were organised by Bollywood Group chairman Kamal Dandona, who had also organised the first Bollywood Fashion Awards on April 27. The Bollywood Awards show was attended by an audience of over 20,000.

The super hit of last year "Kaho Na Pyaar Hai," swept the awards bagging awards for best film, actor (Hrithik Roshan), director (Rakesh Roshan), male playback singer (Lucky Ali), female playback singer (Alka Yagnik), music director (Rajesh Roshan), best male debut (Hrithik Roshan) and the critics' award for best choreography (Farah Khan).

Hollywood action star Steven Seagal, was presented the Humanitarian Award for his work for the Tibetan community. He crooned a song he had written himself from his latest film, "Exit Wounds." Seagal then topped it off with a percussion show in which he played the table while his two accompanists clanged away on a metal bucket with forks and drumsticks, all to the beats of Indian classical music.

CNN anchor Riz Khan, told IANS that such shows "went a long way in bridging the gap between India and the American community. This kind of synergy has already happened to a large degree in, say, Britain, but its only just beginning to happen in the United States".

The show was compered by Ruby Bhatia and featured performances by Akshay Kumar, Tabu, Gulshan Grover, Sonali Bendre, Saif Ali Khan, Sukhbir, Pakistani singer Sajjad Ali and Pakistani actress Reema.

Anupam Kher was awarded the 'Real Hero' title for his humanitarian work with children. "This award means the most to me," Kher said, "because it has nothing to do with my success or performance, but for the person that I am". Special awards were given to Miss World Priyanka Chopra, former tennis star Ashok Amritraj, now a major producer in Hollywood, and a special award to the evergreen Dev Anand for his contribution to Hindi cinema.

The first Bollywood Fashion Awards were held the day before the cinema awards. Here too, Seagal displayed his Tibetan line of couture. Neeta Lulla won the prize for best designer in the category of films. Suneet Verma won it for the designer of the year in prt-a-porter (ready-to-wear) and couture.

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