Growing up, watching awards shows with the family was probably one of the most wholesome things. It was great to sit and watch our favourite actors perform and receive awards. And the thing about these award functions is that everything looks almost flawless. Which is also how we imagined them to be. But there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes, and in-between shots.

Redditors who attended awards functions spilled the beans about the events. You should read these:

1. “Ranbir had mentioned on the AIB podcast that there were 5 people in the audience when he went on stage to collect an award once.”

HardTune272

Ranbir Kapoor
Dawn

2. “I went to IIFA in 2017 (both days) with a friend. It was a complete letdown despite paying an exorbitant amount of money. Didn’t even get to see the actress I was hoping to see, but that was more my fault for not checking beforehand.”

atred3

IIFA
Urban Asian

3. “Went to IIFA – was terribly mismanaged. They were supposed to start at 6 but it started at 10! Everyone was running late. Shahid and Farhan were hosting which was good. I remember some performer was running late so they started asking random audience members to sing or share a joke. Reminded me of school annual function.”

nam558881456

Award functions
YouTube

4. “I sat in row A (camera row – front seat). Main listers came during the award time or performance time and barely sat for 15-20 minutes, to give all their reactions. The seats keep rotating. They appear depending on who’s on stage or which award is presented. Otherwise they are chilling backstage or in the vanities. Also, not all acts are shot, some venues have deadlines, so more technical acts are shot later after audience leaves.

aaneka8

Award functions
The Daily Guardian

5. “I went to the Zee Cine Awards 2 times, was seated in the front row. I then went to an after party with a few B-listers in attendance. A-listers definitely spent 1 hour plus in the show as audience, saw many big names in attendance. The show was organised well enough and ran like clockwork, the awards are pre-determined BTW, especially the bigger ones.”

RajaRajaC

Award functions
DNA India

6. “Everything is written and pre-planned. From the lamest jokes to the controversial things. It’s all decided in advance. Most actors are told in advance that they will win an award and the time when they can expect the award to be given. The winners usually come 20-30 minutes before the ceremony and sit in the audience. Their videos are shot and used again and again when telecasted on TV.”

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phoexnixfunjpr

Award functions
Urban Asian

7. “Overall the awards themselves were super boring, there were significant ‘black out’ periods when nothing happens as the stage is cleared and the next act gets ready. The thing that struck me the most was that outside the venue there would be crowds of people begging for passes, all willing to pay top dollar.”

siegwagenlenker

Award functions
Colors TV

8. “I went to IIFA 2014 in Tampa Bay and remember when they gave Shatrughna Sinha some lifetime achievement award or something. He was definitely drunk and went on and on about how it was “too little too late” (I remember those words exactly). It was so embarrassing to watch. Sonakshi had to escort her dad off stage. This was the same IIFA where they made Kevin Spacey dance in a lungi on stage. All weird.”

kahwachai

Award functions
ClayPaky

9. I liked the performers and all. It was fine. Kinda as expected though I had hoped more celebs would come. Just when I was about to sleep Varun and Bhai performed to some old Salman songs. Sushant, Varun, Shahid, Salman and Alia were there. I think Diljit too. It was the one where Alia sang live and the worst part of the night.

PrincessJazs

Award functions
YouTube

10. “Attended IIFA long back. It’s shit, half the time the stars aren’t even there. There are at times takes when something goes wrong.”

hello2442

Award functions
ZeeNews

Hmm, definitely not how we imagined them to be.