'Delhi Belly' leads Screen nominations pack

New Delhi: Bollywood's small fry 'Delhi Belly' has bagged the maximum nominations for the 18th Annual Colors Screen Awards. The Imran Khan-starrer has picked 19 nominations, while small-budget film 'Shaitan' follows with 15 nods.

'Delhi Belly', which became a winner thanks to its bold and quirky dialogues, has been nominated in categories like best film, best director (Abhinay Deo), best actor in a supporting role - male (Kunal Roy Kapur), best actor in a supporting role - female (Poorna Jagannathan), best actor in a comic role (Kunal Roy Kapur and Vijay Raaz), best ensemble cast, most promising newcomer - female (Poorna Jagannathan).

The movie has also been nominated for the best background score (Ram Sampat), best music (Ram Sampat), best screenplay (Akshat Verma), best story (Akshat Verma), best editing (Hufeza Lokhandwala), best dialogue (Akshat Verma), best cinematography (Jason West), best sound design (Vinod Subramaniam and Dwarak Warrier), best production design (Shashank Tere) and best choreography ('Disco fighter' - Farah Khan).

'Shaitan', which featured Rajeev Khandelwal, Kalki Koechlin and Shiv Pandit, too has bagged 15 popular nominations. Zoya Akhtar's 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' and Ekta Kapoor's 'The Dirty Picture' are at par with 10 nominations each.

Vidya Balan-starrer 'No One Killed Jessica' and ensemble cast-film 'Shor In The City' have picked nine nominations each.

'Rockstar' and Shah Rukh Khan's 'RA.One' have eight nominations, while 'Tanu Weds Manu' has six nods, while 'Don 2: The King Is Back', the last release of 2011, has been nominated only in three categories.

In the best actor (male) category, the competing names include - Ajay Devgn ('Singham'), Amitabh Bachchan ('Aarakshan'), R. Madhavan ('Tanu Weds Manu'), Ranbir Kapoor ('Rockstar') and Shah Rukh Khan ('Don 2: The King Is Back').

Among the females vying for the best actor trophy are Kalki Koechlin ('Shaitan'), Kangna Ranaut ('Tanu Weds Manu'), Priyanka Chopra ('7 Khoon Maaf'), Rani Mukerji ('No One Killed Jessica'), Vidya Balan ('No One Killed Jessica' and 'The Dirty Picture').

The on-ground event for the awards will be held in Mumbai Jan 14, and the glitzy event will be telecast on Colors Jan 22.

The nominations for 18th Annual Colors Screen Awards have been decided upon by a Screen jury that comprises eminent members of the film industry, following several rounds of discussions and debate. Awards will be presented in 30 categories.