The 1st Filmfare Awards were held on 21 March 1954, honoring the best in Hindi cinema in 1953. That year they were known as the Clare Awards, after Clare Mendonça, a film critic of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' who had died in the same year. ''

Baiju Bawra Baiju Bawra (Lit. "Baiju the Insane", born as Baijnath Mishra) was a dhrupad musician from medieval India. Nearly all the information on Baiju Bawra comes from legends, and lacks historical authenticity. According to the most popular legends, he ...

'' & ''

Do Bigha Zamin ''Do Bigha Zamin'' () is a 1953 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Bimal Roy. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's Bengali poem " Dui Bigha Jomi", the film stars Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy in lead roles. Known for its socialist theme, it is c ...

'' won 2 awards each, with the former winning

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

(for

Meena Kumari Meena Kumari (born Mahjabeen Bano; 1 August 1933 – 31 March 1972) was an Indian actress and poet, who worked in Hindi films. Popularly known as ''The Tragedy Queen'', she was active between 1939 and 1972. Kumari is widely considered one of ...

) and Best Music Director (for

Naushad Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian music director for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the ...

for ''Tu Ganga Ki Mauj''), and the latter winning

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

(for

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as '' Do Bigha Zamin'', '' Parineeta'', '' Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas'', ''Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' ...

), thus becoming the most-awarded films at the ceremony,

Dilip Kumar Mohammed Yusuf Khan (; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021), better known by his stage name Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated the Indian movie scene from ...

won his first Best Actor award for his performance in '' Daag''.

The Awards

In a short ceremony held at

Metro Cinema Metro Cinema may refer to: * Metro Cinema (Derby), closed 2008 * Metro Cinema (Mumbai) 1938–2006 name, now Metro BIG Cinemas, Mumbai * Metro Cinema (Kolkata), a single screen movie theatre in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) * Metro Cinema Edmonton, ...

in Bombay (now Mumbai), awards in only 5 categories were handed out. The Chief Guest of function was

George Allen George Allen may refer to: Politics and law * George E. Allen (1896–1973), American political operative and one-time head coach of the Cumberland University football team * George Allen (Australian politician) (1800–1877), Mayor of Sydney and ...

, US Ambassador to India. The ceremony was compared by actor

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, and it started with actress

Nalini Jaywant Nalini Jaywant (18 February 1926 – 22 December 2010) was an Indian actress who appeared in Hindi films in the 1940s and 1950s. Background and personal life Jaywant was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1926. She was first cousin of actre ...

singing the national anthem. This was followed by song and dance performance by various actors, musical performances by

Talat Mehmood Talat Mahmood (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) was an Indian playback singer who is considered one of the popular male Indian film song and ghazal singers. Although he tried his luck as a film actor, he did not succeed a great deal in acti ...

Geeta Roy Geeta Dutt (born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer and a famous Hindi and Bengali classical artist, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a ...

and Mohammed Rafi. Next two performances were classical dance performances by

Vyjayanthimala Vyjayanthimala (born 13 August 1936) is a former Indian actress, dancer and parliamentarian. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards. She made her screen debut at the age of thirteen wit ...

and Surya Kumari. The finale of the performance section was a folk-dance performance, "Lure of Rajasthan" by

Kamini Kaushal Kamini Kaushal (born as Uma Kashyap, 24 February 1927) is an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films and television. She is noted for her roles in films such as ''Neecha Nagar'' (1946), which won the 1946 Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at Cannes Fil ...

and her troupe. This led to the section where David announced the awards. No nominations were announced, just the winners. Keep with the voting process, where the readers of the magazine, decided the winners through postal votes, even the awards were given away by readers, chosen via a lucky draw. For example, the Best Film trophy was given by Ambassador Allen to a reader, Saijuddin from Hyderabad, who in turn presented it to Bimal Roy. This was followed by

which was won by

for ''Baiju Bawra'' and Best Actor went to

for ''Daag''. Next, ace music director

won his first and only Filmfare Award, for Best Music for ''Baiju Bawra''. The final award, the

was won by

, present by Sonny Cordiero, a reader from Mumbai. Incidentally, Bimal Roy and Dilip Kumar were the first winners of

and Best Actor respectively, and remained almost 6 decades later, the ones with the most wins in either category, with 7 and 8 awards respectively. Additionally, Meena Kumari, who was the first winner for

, held the record for the most wins in the category (4) for 13 years, till her record was broken by

Nutan Nutan Samarth Bahl (4 June 1936 – 21 February 1991), known mononymously as Nutan, was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. In a career spanning nearly four decades, she appeared in more than 70 films, mostly as a protagonist, in both b ...

with her 5th win at the

26th Filmfare Awards The 26th Filmfare Awards were held in 1979. ''Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki'' and ''Muqaddar Ka Sikandar'' led the ceremony with 9 nominations each, followed by ''Satyam Shivam Sundaram'' and ''Trishul'' with 6 nominations each, and ''Don'' with 5 ...

. Fearing similar mob of fans as outside

, the venue of the award party was not announced publicly. Later, around hundred invitees gathered at Wellington Gymkhana Club. Hollywood star Gregory Peck was invited to be the guest of honour at the awards but couldn't make it to the function since his flight from Colombo got delayed. However, Peck did attend the after-party banquet that followed the award night at Wellington Gymkhana Club, Mumbai.

Best Film

*''

Best Director

*''

–

Best Actor

*''

– Daag''

Best Actress

*''

–

Best Music

*''

–

for Tu Ganga Ki Mauj''

References

External links

Winner and nomination of 1st Filmfare Awards
at

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

* {{Filmfare Awards Filmfare Awards 1954 in Indian cinema 1953 film awards