The IMAGES survey vs the LSA jury: Who picked the better winners?
The Annual LUX style awards (LSAs) seemed to have a slippery start what with it requiring scrubbing the slate clean and including nominees that had been initially excluded.
This left room for the speculative amongst us to wonder whether the organisers hadn’t done the required groundwork in the first place, or whether these changes were deeper revelations inspired by sponsors. Of course no one is completely discounting the suggestion that they might actually have been trying to be fair.
When the dust, rather, soap suds settled, we were left with an odd mix of nominees and dated nominations honouring last year’s TV dramas, films, music and fashion. But perhaps an excuse for a high glamour home grown award show provides enough smoke and mirrors to overlook all that.
We ran an online survey asking our readers to pick their winners, and it looks like the pollsters and the LUX Style Awards jury were mostly on the same page.
A total of 1,006 people took our survey: check out the complete results here.
BEST TV PLAY
LUX Style Awards: Pyaray Afzal
Polls: Pyaray Afzal (82.1% of votes)
Pyaray Afzal swept the jury and popular vote. The pollsters gave it a whopping 82.1% of the vote. No surprises here since much of the nation was enthralled by our love struck tragic hero.
BEST TV ACTOR
LUX Style Awards: Hamza Ali Abbasi (Pyaray Afzal)
Polls: Hamza Ali Abbasi (Pyaray Afzal) (51.2% of votes)
Cleaning out the competition, Hamza Ali Abbasi was both jury and poll favourite for his portrayal of lovelorn Afzal. Though he wasn’t quite squeaky clean, his likeable character definitely won hearts.
BEST TV ACTRESS
LUX Style Awards: Aiza Khan (Pyaray Afzal)
Polls: Aiza Khan (Pyaray Afzal) (48% of votes)
With her magroor haseena act, Aiza Khan came out on top!
Who says the jury and the audience doesn’t appreciate strong-willed women? HUM TV are you listening?
BEST TV WRITER
LUX Style Awards: Khalil Ur Rehman Qamar (Pyaray Afzal)
Polls: Khalil Ur Rehman Qamar (Pyaray Afzal) (80.6% of votes)
Beating out other nominees with a mere flick of his pen, Khalil Ur Rehman Qamar won both the award and audience appreciation for dialogues that stick.
BEST TV DIRECTOR
LUX Style Awards: Nadeem Baig (Pyaray Afzal)
Polls: Nadeem Baig (Pyaray Afzal) (72.9% of votes)
A clear crowd pleaser on all accounts, Pyaray Afzal pulled in a win for director Nadeem Baig for a smartly packaged and well-delivered product.
BEST FILM
LUX Style Awards: Na Maloom Afraad
Polls: Na Maloom Afraad (52.5% of votes)
No surprises here! Na Maloom Afraad, an out and out entertainer took in the jury award and poll winnings with 52.5% of the pollsters votes and 100% audience approval for all things comical with a uniquely Pakistani flavor.
BEST FILM DIRECTOR
LUX Style Awards: Nabeel Qureshi (Na Maloom Afraad)
Polls: Nabeel Qureshi (Na Maloom Afraad) (49.2% of votes)
Kudos to Nabeel Qureshi for giving the public a reason to go to the cinema and escape the realities of riots, power cuts and personal hardships of living in Pakistan by showing them riots, power cuts and personal hardships.
BEST FILM ACTOR
LUX Style Awards: Javed Sheikh (Na Maloom Afraad)
Polls: Fahad Mustafa (Na Maloom Afraad) (44.5% of votes)
The jury favoured Javed Sheikh for the win for his role as Shakeel Bhai, the upright government employee, desperate enough to take desperate measures. The pollsters voted for the same film but a different actor. Fahad Mustafa with his take on a struggling insurance agent dreaming and scheming on the big screen got 44.5% of the popular vote.
BEST FILM ACTRESS
LUX Style Awards: Saleha Arif (Dukhtar)
Polls: Samiya Mumtaz (Dukhtar) (60% of votes)
The jury gave the nod to the youngest nominee in the competition Saleha Arif! A well-deserved win for the young actress who held her own among the more seasoned performers in the film.
Samiya Mumtaz got a rousing approval from the polls with a 60% vote in her favour for her role as the desperate yet steely willed mother in Dukhtar.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
LUX Style Awards: Dareeche by Zoe Viccaji
Polls: Dareeche by Zoe Viccaji (37.5% of votes)
Dareeche, which was a window into Zoe Viccaji’s soulful and personal journey resonated with both the jury and pollsters.
SONG OF THE YEAR
LUX Style Awards: Roiyaan by Farhan Saeed
Polls: Roiyaan by Farhan Saeed (31.1% of votes)
Farhan Saeed’s rendition of broken dreams saw no love lost among jury and his fans. Roiyaan won hearts and votes to beat out the rest of the competition.
BEST OST
LUX Style Awards: Fizza Ali Meerza / Nabeel Qureshi for Billi (Na Maloom Afraad)
Polls: Saad Sultan for Liayan Liayan in TV series Jackson Heights (35.1% of votes)
The jury awarded Billi from Na Maloom Afraad as best original soundtrack. Who would have guessed that the song meant to draw in the crowds would impress the jury as well?
Saad Sultan’s acoustic reimagining of the original Liayan Laiyan was music to pollster’s ears. He had many fans and votes swaying to his tune.
BEST EMERGING TALENT (SINGER)
LUX Style Awards: Sara Haider
Polls: Sara Haider (51.7% of votes)
Sara Haider’s singing talent spotlighted by Grease and more recently Coke Studio won the award for talent to lookout for. Her performance made the audience take note too!
From these results it seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that Pyaray Afzal is a drama beloved by all and that for the most part Dawn readers agree with the Lux Style Awards.
Apart from a few disagreements, where Dawn readers prefer the younger generation in the form of Fahad Mustafa and Samiya Mumtaz and chose the lilting notes of 'Laiyan Liayan' over the catchy 'Billi', there was little difference between both sets of results.
Want to see how 1,006 readers voted? Check out the complete online survey results here.
Sadaf Haider and Sadaf Siddique are pearls of a pod, fellow freelance writers and drama buffs.