Filmfare Awards Rare Photos

The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Hindi language film industry of India. The Filmfare ceremony is the oldest and most prominent film events dedicated to Hindi films in India. The Filmfare Awards have been referred to as the Hindi film industry's Academy Awards.

Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar receives the Best Actor award for his performance in 'Devdas' and actress Nutan receives the Best Actress award for her role in 'Seema' in 1956 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

The Filmfare awards were first introduced in 1954. The Clares was the original name of the award ceremony, named after The Times of India critic Clare Mendonca. Readers of Filmfare were polled to decide the winners, and over 20,000 readers spread throughout India participated in the polls; trophies were given to winners of the popular vote. In the first awards function, held on 21 March 1954 at the Metro Theatre of Mumbai, only five awards were presented: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Music Director. Do Bigha Zameen was the first movie to win the award for Best Film. The first winners for other four categories were: Bimal Roy for his direction of Do Bigha Zameen, Dilip Kumar for his performance in Daag, Meena Kumari for her performance in Baiju Bawra, and Naushad Ali for his music in Baiju Bawra.

FILMFARE AWARDS RARE PHOTOS (BOLLYWOOD FILMFARE AWARDS RARE PHOTOS)

Actor Dev Anand & actress Vyjayanthimala (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Dilip Kumar, actress Nargis (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Dilip Kumar (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Dilip Kumar receives the Best Actor Award at Filmfare Awards Nite held in Bombay on April 4, 1954 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

J C Jain, general manager of Times of India Group, addresses the gathering at the 6th Filmfare Awards function held in Bombay. Also present on the occasion are actor Dev Anand, actress Vyjayantimala & director Bimal Roy in 1958 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Manoj Kumar and actress Hema Malini receive the Best Actor and Best Actress from the chief guest Jagjivan Ram in 1973 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Raj Kapoor receives the Best Actor Award for 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai' from the Governor of Maharashtra, C Subramaniam in 1961(Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Raj Kapoor along with his wife Krishna Kapoor partake in the Filmfare Award distribution function in Bombay on April 1, 1970 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

One of Bollywood's most popular actors of the 70ss, actor Rajesh Khanna, receives the Best Actor Filmfare Award from actress Hema Malini in 1975 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor receives the Best Actor Award for his heartwarming performance in 'Bobby' from veteran actress Nutan in 1973 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Sanjeev Kumar & actress Rakhee receive the Best Actor and Actress award from the Union minister for External Affairs, Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1976 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor & Singer Kishore Kumar (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Sunil Dutt & Actress Meena Kumari are presented with the Filmfare Best Actor and Best Actress awards from Hollywood Actor Tony Randall in 1965 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Dimple Kapadia gets the Best actress award for her role in 'Saagar' & actor Victor Banerjee gets the Best actor award for his performance in a Bengali film ‘Ghare Baire’ in 1985 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Hema Malini delivers a speech to the audience at the Filmfare Award ceremony held in Bombay on January 1, 1980 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Bollywood actress Kamini Kaushal receives the Best Actress Award for her performance in 'Biraj Bahu' from Maharashtra Chief Minister, Morarji Desai in 1955 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Bollywood actress Nargis receives the Best Actress award for her iconic performance in 'Mother India' from Yashwantrao Chavan in 1957 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Nutan receives the Best Actress Award for her performance in 'Bandini' from Actor Rajendra Kumar in 1963 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Nutan gets the Best actress award for her performance in 'Milan' in 1967 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Rekha & actress Smitha Patil (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Amitabh Bachchan & Actress Shabana Azmi (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Sharmila Tagore & actor Ashok Kumar win the Filmfare Best Actor and Best Actress award for the year 1969 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Sridevi along with actor Shah Rukh Khan at the 1996 Filmfare Awards in Mumbai (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Amitabh Bachchan won the Filmfare Best Actor award for his performance in 'Don' & actress Nutan won the Best Actress award for 'Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki' in 1978 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Sridevi receives the Filmfare Best Actress Award from superstar actor Amitabh Bachchan for her performance in 'Chalbaz' in 1990 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actor Dilip Kumar receives the Filmfare Best Actor award for his role in 'Shakti' from actor Ashok Kumar in 1983 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari, along with actress Shashikala (left), pose with victorious smiles on receiving the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor (female) respectively in 1962 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

(Left to right) Bollywood actor David receives the Best Supporting Actor award; actress Meena Kumari, the Best Actress award for her brilliant performance in 'Parineeta'; actor Bharat Bhushan got the Best Actor award for his role in 'Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu' and actress Usha Kiron the Best Supporting Actress award in 1954 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Bollywood actor Salman Khan receives the Best actor in a Supporting Role Award for the hugely popular 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' at the Filmfare Awards in Mumbai on February 21, 1999 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Actress Waheeda Rehman receives the Best Actress Award for her performance in 'Guide' from the legendary actor & filmmaker Raj Kapoor in 1966 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Eminent playback singer Lata Mangeshkar attends the Annual Filmfare Awards along with her family members and other film personalities in 1995 (Filmfare Awards Rare Photos)

Hollywood star Gregory Peck was invited to be the guest of honour at the first ever awards on March 21, 1954 at the Metro theatre, Mumbai but couldn't make it to the function since his flight from Colombo got delayed. However, Gregory Peck did attend the banquet that followed the award nite at Wellington Club(Gymkhana), Mumbai. A dual voting system was developed in 1956. Under this system, "in contrast to the National Film Awards, which are decided by a panel appointed by Indian Government, the Filmfare Awards are voted by both the public and a committee of experts.

The winners for the year 1985 were announced in 1986 and the event was scheduled to be held at the Brabourne Stadium in December 1986. Unfortunately the Bombay film Industry, as was known then went on strike in '86 because of its many contentious issues with the Maharashtra Government. So the ceremony was pushed to the next year. The winners of 1985 were awarded on 28 January 1987. Due to Security reasons, filmfare was not awarded for 1987 and 1988.    

The awards only started with a few categories back in 1954 but today, it recognizes about 31 categories. There is a separate category of film-critics awards, decided by noted film-critics rather than popular votes.

The statuette, depicting a woman whose arms uprise in a dance number with her fingers touching, is commonly referred to as "The Black Lady" (or "The Lady in Black"). Filmfare is widely known for "The Black Lady" not only because of it's beautiful sculpture but because it is the token of honor presented to each winner. Originally designed by N.G. Pansare under the supervision of Times of India's art director Walter Langhammer, it is generally made of bronze, its height is 46.5 cm and it weighs around five kgs. To celebrate the 25th year of the awards, the statues were made in silver and to celebrate the 50th year the statues were made in gold. The trophy is currently manufactured by The Award Gallery.

The Red Carpet is a segment that takes place before the beginning of the actual ceremony. This is when actors, actresses, producers, directors, singers, composers, and others that have contributed to Indian cinema are introduced.