IIFA 2025 : 'Laapataa Ladies', 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3' lead in popular category nominations

New Delhi: Light-hearted satire "Laapataa Ladies" and horror comedies "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3" and "Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank" have emerged as the top nominees in popular categories at the International Indian Film Academy Awards 2024, the organisers announced on Sunday.

Kiran Rao's "Laapataa Ladies" leads the pack with nine nominations, while "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3" directed by Anees Bazmee and Amar Kaushik's "Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank" follow close with seven and six nods, respectively.

The silver jubilee edition of the IIFA Awards, set to be held in Jaipur between March 8 and 9, will honour cinematic excellence across 10 categories of Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Performance in a Leading Role (Female and Male), Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Female and Male), Best Performance in a Negative Role, Music Direction, and Playback Singer (Male and Female).

The nominees in the Best Picture are "Laapataa Ladies", "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3", "Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank", "Kill", "Article 370", and "Shaitaan".

In the Best Direction category, the race is among Rao ("Laapataa Ladies"), Nikhil Nagesh Bhat ("Kill"), Kaushik ("Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank"), Siddharth Anand ("Fighter"), Bazmee ("Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3"), and Aditya Suhas Jhambale ("Article 370").

Nitanshi Goel ("Laapataa Ladies"), Alia Bhatt ("Jigra"), Yami Gautam ("Article 370"), Katrina Kaif ("Merry Christmas), and Shraddha Kapoor ("Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank") will contend for the award of Best Performance in a Leading Role (Female).

Sparsh Shrivastava ("Laapataa Ladies"), Rajkummar Rao ("Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank"), Kartik Aaryan ("Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3"), Abhishek A Bachchan ("I Want To Talk"), and Ajay Devgn ("Shaitaan") are nominated in the Best Performance in a Leading Role (Male) category.

Chhaya Kadam ("Laapataa Ladies"), Vidya Balan ("Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3"), Janki Bodiwala and Jyotika (both for "Shaitaan"), and Priyamani ("Article 370") are vying for the award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Female).

Ravi Kishan ("Laapataa Ladies"), Abhishek Banerjee ("Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank"), Fardeen Khan ("Khel Khel Mein"), Rajpal Yadav ("Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3"), and Manoj Pahwa ("Jigra") have secured nominations in the Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Male) segment.

The nominees for the Best Performance in a Negative Role are: Raghav Juyal ("Kill"), R Madhavan ("Shaitaan"), Gajraj Rao ("Maidaan"), Vivek Gomber ("Jigra"), and Arjun Kapoor ("Singham Again").

Sachin-Jigar and Tanishk Bagchi have earned twin nominations each in the Best Music Direction category.

Sachin-Jigar are nominated for their individual work on "Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank", they are also recognised for their composing skills in "Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya", alongside various composers like Bagchi, Mitraz, Raghav, Talwiinder, Nds, and Mc Square.

Bagchi is nominated along with Pritam, Lijo George, Sachet - Parampara, Dj Chetas, Adiya Rikhari, and Amaal Malik for "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3".

Other nominees in the Best Music Direction category are: Ram Sampath ("Laapataa Ladies") and AR Rahman ("Maidaan").

Singers Arijit Singh ("Laapataa Ladies"), Karan Aujla ("Bad Newz"), Diljit Dosanjh with Baadshah ("Crew"), Jubin Nautiyal ("Article 370"), and Mitraz ("Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya") are nominated for the Playback Singer (Male) award.

Shreya Ghoshal has secured double nominations in the Best Playback Singer (Female) category for "Laapataa Ladies" and "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3".

Also nominated in the segment are Madhubanti Baghchi "Stree 2 - Sarkate Ka Aatank", Rekha Bhardwaj ("Kill"), and Shilpa Rao ("Fighter").