Pakistan celebrated its artists, designers, stylists, actors and musicians with a big bang on Wednesday night in Karachi, during an event, which is considered to be the biggest tribute-paying platform to Pakistani entertainment industry. All our favourite stars from Fawad Khan to Ali Zafar, Sabri Brothers, Sana Safinaz, Nomi Ansari, Nadeem, Javed Sheikh, Mahira Khan, Nabila, among others, rubbed shoulders to celebrate the entertainment and fashion industry of Pakistan, joined by the entire media fraternity, from journalists to bloggers and stellar photographers.

From there on, it was a rollicking musical ride. Pakistani films truly found their footing in 2015 and Ayesha Omar, Urwa Hocane and Amna Ilyas all performed to the most popular songs of the year. Unilever Pakistan Limited Marketing Director Raheel Pasha highlighted, “The Lux Style Awards are the epitome of style and glamour in Pakistan. They represent the best that Pakistan has to offer in music, style, fashion and entertainment. LSA provides us the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments and milestones while leading the growth of all segments in this industry.”

The awards show audience was entertained by current sensation Yasir Hussain, who is loved by audiences for his film persona, ‘Moti’. ‘Na Maloom Afraad’ swept the film awards and child star Saleha Aref of ‘Dukhtar’ got recognition for Best Film Actress.

Music is the bedrock of any awards show and with Zafar in the audience, the evening was always going to be grand as well as entertaining. The act was designed to throw in surprises as singers came on stage singing Zafar’s songs such as “Dadi”, “Chal dil meray’ and “Aye Dil” with Zafar, very sportingly coming up to join them for a performance and dancing up a storm to his latest hit “Rockstar”.

The award for Best Music Album was won via Viewer’s Choice poll by Zoe Viccaji for ‘Dareeche’, while song of the year was “Roiyaan” by Farhan Saeed. Sara Haider won Best Emerging Talent.

‘Pyarey Afzal’ swept the TV Awards winning five awards, including Best TV Serial, Sheikh for Best Actor, Aiza Khan for Best Actress, Khalilur Rehman Qamar for Best Writer and Nadeem for Best Director. The fashion awards were dominated by Sana Safinaz walking off with Achievement in Design Prêt, Luxury Prêt and Lawn while Ansari won his second LSA for Achievement in Design, Bridal. Ismail Farid was honoured for his much acclaimed menswear.

Photography saw a new winner as Nadir Firoz Khan stepped up, hair and make-up maestro Nabila won her ninth LSA. Ilyas was declared Best Female Model and Shehzad Noor was Best Male Model. Model Sadaf Kanwal, who also performed at the LSAs, was adjudged Best Emerging Talent.

The Lux Style Awards have consistently paid tribute to legends and recognised the efforts of those who built the entertainment and fashion industries. The Unilever Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award was given to film director Syed Noor. The award was presented by Unilever Pakistan Chairman & CEO Ehsan Malik, whilst Nadeem, shared his experiences of working with Noor.

The Lifetime Achievement in Fashion Award was given by designer Maheen Khan to Masarrat Misbah of Depilex. Masarrat, who has been in the beauty industry since the past 30 years, was first honoured by Hassan Shehryar Yasin who spoke eloquently of her life and work with the fashion industry and the Smile Again Foundation.

The Lux Style Awards has been giving away scholarships every year since 2008 to deserving students to complete their final year thesis. Again this year eight students, two each from the Nation College of Arts, National Academy of Performing Arts, Asian Institute of Fashion Design and the Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design, were handed their certificates of merit from Talat Hussain and Imran Aslam.

The finale had international star Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and director Frieha Altaf introducing four new faces to cinema by coaxing virtuoso performances out of models Nooray Bhatti, Sabeeka Imam, Kanwal and Fia Khan. They performed to well-loved numbers such as “Zaroori Tha”, “Chori chori”, “Terey mast mast do nain” and “Habibi” with everybody joining in for the grand finale on “Nach Dum Dum”.

Producer and show director Frieha Altaf of Catwalk Productions conceptualised the acts; with scripts by Wasay Chaudhry and Yasir Hussain. The media management was by Golin.

The LSAs 2015, that were a show of honouring the entertainment and fashion industry’s members, both the fresh and the veteran, proved to be night of non-stop fun, laughter and entertainment. We hope the consistency remains with the awards being held every year so the hard work put behind in bringing to the country, good cinema, exceptional music, immaculate fashion and stellar make-up could be encouraged and honoured in that way.

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