Jacqueline Fernandez, Mugdha Godse, Minissha Lamba, Anjana Sukhani, Aditi Rao Hydari and Shruti Haasan met like long-lost friends, while Sagarika Ghatge and Vidya Malvade — two Chak De! India actors — stayed together throughout the evening.

Soon after Amitabh Bachchan arrived with Jaya and Abhishek, Shatrughan and Poonam Sinha waved at them. Abhishek came up and greeted them. Poonam was also seen bonding with Gauri Khan and her daughter Suhana. The two sat next to each other, engrossed in conversation.

The Bachchans also bonded with their friends, director couple R Balki and Gauri Shinde. Abhishek, who won an award for his comic performance in Bol Bachchan, was at his cheerful best. He first had Sonali Bendre and Genelia D’Souza Deshmukh in splits, and then escorted stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania to the stage when she won an award for the best costume.

Rekha was seen mingling with other members of the industry. Her fondness for Sonakshi Sinha is well known and it was evident when she made the young actor sit next to her holding her hand. Priyanka Chopra, too, spent some time with the diva before hopping across to greet Deepika Padukone.

With Gangs of Wasseypur, Kahaani, Paan Singh Tomar and Barfi! being the top contenders, the cast and crew of the films made their presence felt. When Sujoy Ghosh was awarded the trophy for best story for Kahaani, the others from his group — Namrata Rao, Parambrata Chatterjee and Vidya Balan — turned up the decibel levels by cheering. When the Best Actor Award was shared by Ranbir Kapoor and Irrfan for Barfi! and Paan Singh Tomar respectively, the UTV gang — Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Mehta — stood up and applauded.

There were several first-timers in the audience; one of them being Sunny Leone, who was accompanied by husband Daniel Weber, and sat next to actor-director Amol Palekar and his wife Sandhya Gokhale.

Parineeti Chopra was accompanied by her Ishaqzaade director Habib Faisal and cheered all the winners. Prabhu Deva, who came with his brother Vishnu Deva, couldn’t help but tap his feet during the performances.

It was a pleasure to see the newcomers Arjun Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Kayoze Irani hug Ayushmann Khurrana when he was declared the Most Promising Newcomer (Male).