Amrita ao does a Hot Item Number

Has Shyam Benegal been lured by the item song?

The legendary director of classics like Ankur, Nishant, Bhumika and Manthan will apparently feature Amrita Rao in what looks like an item number in his latest film, Welcome To Sajjanpur.

Initially titled Mahadev Ka Sajjanpur, the film also features Shreyas Talpade, playing a letter-writer in a village of uneducated people.

A set on Ramoji Studios in Hyderabad was converted into a small village called Sajjanpur. When the cast reported on the sets each day, they used to greet each other thus: "Welcome to Sajjanpur".

Talpade then suggested to Benegal that he consider renaming the film Welcome To Sajjanpur; the director agreed.

Amrita is said to feature in an item song, part of a dream sequence. Quite a change from the previous roles the demure lass has essayed and quite a change from Mr Benegal's films too!

Shyam Benegal recieved Special Honours at IIFA

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal won the special honours at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) 2008 awards here Sunday night while music composer A.R. Rahman and the Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'Om Shanti Om' figured among the winners.

Mumtaz, a popular star of the yesteryears, was also named for the IIFA special honour, while actor Akshay Kumar bagged the special award from the host country, Thailand.

The award for the best performance in a negative role went to Viveik Oberoi for 'Shootout at Lokhandwala', while the one for the best performance in a comic role went to Govinda ('Partner').

At the gala ceremony at Siam Niramik here, Karan Johar, Urmila Matondkar, Boman Irani and Ritesh Deshmukh compered Bollywood's much awaited award ceremony. It was the team of Boman and Ritesh that won the hearts of the audience with their easy repartee in a show that could, however, do with better management.

The 2,000-capacity hall was full, with a majority of the audience consisting of the Indian diaspora.

The award announcements were preceded by performances of songs from some eagerly awaited Hindi films and Govinda stole the show with his dance number.

Rahman was named the best music director for his score in 'Guru'. Shreya Ghoshal won the honours for the best playback singer (female) for 'Barso re' from Mani Ratnam's 'Guru', which film also bagged awards for the best background score (Rahman) and best song recording (H. Sridhar).

The best playback singer (male) award was bagged by Shaan for 'Jab se tere naina' from 'Saawariya'.

Veteran Javed Akhtar was named the best lyricist for 'Om Shanti Om', which also garnered awards for best special effects (Red Chillies Entertainment), best art direction (Sabu Cyril), best costume design (Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar and Sanjeev Mulchandani) and best makeup.

The award for best screenplay was won jointly by Anurag Basu ('Life in a Metro') and Jaideep Sahni ('Chak De! India'). Sahni also won the award for best story for the same film.

'Chak De! India' also took home the trophy for best cinematography. Imtiyaz Ali was named the best dialogue writer for 'Jab We Met'.