The filmfare award, initially named as Clares Awards (named after The Times of India critic Clare Mendonca) was first held on 21 March 1954 at the Metro Theatre of Mumbai, and Hollywood star Gregory Peck was invited to be the guest of honour. It has evolved as one of the leading award ceremonies on the planet which has got over hundreds of millions of viewership. It started modestly with only five awards, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Music Director and over time it became the preeminent and most-recognized award in Bollywood. The Filmfare Awards have proudly expanded its horizon to amplify appreciation and the recognition equitable to all who are in the craft of film making even from the regional film industries. We have seen Filmfare Awards South for South Indian cinema, Filmfare Marathi Awards for Marathi cinema, and Filmfare Awards East for Eastern Indian cinema. In its journey, the Filmfare Awards joined hands with another iconic brand Femina Group and held a brand new Filmfare Femina Bhojpuri Icons Award. For over six decades, Femina, a 64-year-old legacy brand owned by Worldwide Media, a Times Group company, has been India’s leading women’s brand for progressive women. Femina in the stride of celebrating achievers from various fields and showcasing their stories to inspire individuals to follow their dreams has ventured into the Bhojpuri world which resides in the Purvanchal region of India spreading its culture across the globe.

The Bhojpuri industry came into being with its first Bhojpuri movie, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, released in 1963. By the 1970s Bhojpuri cinema gained it momentum and produced movies like Bidesiya, Hamar Bhauji, and Ganga Kinare Mora Gaon. Bhojpuri cinema has grown in recent years. In 2020, the industry produced around 70-80 movies, grew to a whopping ₹2000 crore industry, and has started to attract investments from big production houses like Reliance Entertainment, Zee Studios, and Eros International.

Growth of Bhojpuri movies has been inevitable as people of the Bhojpur region have a unique cultural heritage and it spans from the western northern part of Bihar to the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, and people of the Bhojpuri region love their rich culture and performance arts. Deeply rooted, Bhojpuri is a descendant of Magadhi Prakrit, used the Kaithi script (now replaced with Devnagari), and is considered an Eastern Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-Aryan languages. Bhojpuri is spoken widely across the world, and together with Magahi and Maithili, it is known as the Bihari language.

On historical account, the region was one of the prominent and opulent dynasties since the descendants of Raja Bhoj (Chero and Ujjainiya Rajputs in the 12th century) from Ujjain, Malwa, Madhya Pradesh conquered Shahabad and named their capital Bhojpur (City of Raja Bhoj). Interestingly, the Siddha Sahitya and Charyapada (8th century A.D) have various enumerations of Bhojpuri. The age-old Folklore like Lorikayan, Sorathi Birjabhar etc. underscores the literary elegance of Bhojpuri culture. Dr. Grierson also noted that Bengali and Bhojpuri were the two great civilizers of the Hindustan and Bhojpuri is the practical language of an energetic race who were ever ready to accommodate any circumstances.

As a superintendent of the newly created Linguistic Survey of India in 1898, Sir Dr. George Abraham Grierson, a linguist in British India, during his postings in Bengal and Bihar studied the languages and folklore of India. His elegant work “Seven Grammars of the Dialects and Subdialects of the Bihari Language, spoken in the Province of Bihar, in the Eastern Portion of the North-Western Provinces, and in the Northern Portion of the Central Provinces, Part II (Shahabad, Saran and Champaran)”, highlighted all elements of the language and underscored the sufficiency that was required for the inclusion of Bhojpuri language in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution of India. Notably, in 2018, Bhojpuri was given second-language status in Jharkhand state of India. Amongst the regional arts of Bhojpuri music has been in prominence and enjoys a rich heritage of linguistic eminence as well as elements of Hindustani Classical Music. The origin of Bhojpuri music has cultural and civilizational roots and prominence primarily has been in the patriotic and spiritual themes, and of them songs of Vir-Ras (bravery) sung by Jang Bahadur Singh and Nirguna (spiritual) sung by Kabir are exemplary.

The history for Bhojpuri cinema was made on Sunday, July 16, 2023, in Lucknow, with glamour filled Filmfare Femina Bhojpuri Icons Award event co-hosted by Filamchi Bhojpuri was a star-studded gala event involving both real-life and on-screen icons. where it recognized and celebrated the achievements of not only extremely talented individuals from the Bhojpuri entertainment industry, but also eminent personalities who made significant contributions in the fields of literature, sports, music, and social welfare.

The red carpet and podium were dazzled with stars like Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kisan, Khesari Lal Yadav, Rani Chatterjee, and Yash Kumar. Amidst some stellar and extravagant musical and dance performances celebrating the rich legacy of Bhojpuri cinema. In the Avadh land, Femina and Filmfare crafted an unforgettable evening enriched with opulence and allure and honored exceptional individuals who have made a lasting impact on society and cinema. The winners of The Filmfare Femina Bhojpuri Icons Awards included Manoj Bhawuk (outstanding contribution to literature), Sharda Sinha (outstanding contribution to music), Shovana Narayan (outstanding contribution to the performing art), Chandana Dutt (outstanding contribution to education), Sharad Sagar (inspiring entrepreneur), Prakhar Pranjwal (youth icon), Pawan Singh (Icon of the year, male, for Mera Bharat Mahan), Kajal Raghwani (Icon of the year, female, for Chalte Chalte), Pawan Singh (Singer of the year, male, for Humro Umar Lag Jaye - Mera Bharat Mahan), Priyanka Singh (Singer of the year, female, for Piya Ji Ke Muski - Doli Saja Ke Rakhana), Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua (outstanding contribution to Bhojpuri movies), Pakkhi Hegde (outstanding contribution to Bhojpuri movies), Sanjay Mishra (pride of Bhojpuri soil), Ravi Kishan (outstanding performer in Indian OTT and cinema), and Manoj Tiwari (Lifetime achievement award).

Literature plays a primordial role in cultural and societal development as it allows people to understand and reflect on their perceptions, rationality, experiences, and values. The depth and breadth of literature, foster intellectualism and enables exploring different perspectives and gaining 360 degrees of kaleidoscopic view of the world. Across the world, literature has been instrumental in bringing and reinforcing positive social changes, shaping human culture and raising awareness of important issues.

The Bhojpuri Legend Manoj Bhawuk, proud recipient of Bhojpuri Icons Filmfare and Femina Award for outstanding contribution to literature, hails from Kausar, a small village in Siwan district of Bihar. Manoj Bhawuk is the chief editor of e-magazine named Bhojpuri Junction. The journey of Manoj Bhawuk has been outstanding as he left behind the engineering track and embraced Bhojpuri land again to foster and nourish Bhojpuri language, literature, and cinema. His relentless efforts were recognized and has been the Project Head and host of Zee TV's reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. He is one of the lyricists of the film 'Mehandi laga ke rakhna-3'. The eminent work of Bhawuk has brought him many awards and accolades that include Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award (2006) for his ghazal collection entitled “Tasveer Zindagi Ke”, Pt. Pratap Narayan Mishra Samman (2006), Bhikhari Thakur Samman (2011), Rahi Masoon Raza Samman (2012), International Bhojpuri Gaurav Samman, Mauritius (2014), Parikalpana Lok Bhushan Samman in Kathmandu, Nepal (2013), Geetanjali Sahitya Award in Birmingham, United Kingdom (2018), Bihari Connect Global Samman in Dubai (2019), Kailash Gautam Kavya-Kunj Lokbhasha Samman (2022) to list few. Most notably, his book ‘Bhojpuri Cinema ke Sansar’ on the history of Bhojpuri Cinema (1931-2022) was showcased by many eminent personalities during the event. Multi-talented Manoj bestowed Bhojpuri Cinema with his acting skills and some to list are 'Saugandh Ganga Maiya Ke' and 'Rakhwala. Manoj has played a pivotal role in empowering Bhojpuri literature.

The ontogenesis of any language relies on fostering by entities who harbour power, but unfortunately, no ruler gave shelter to the Bhojpuri culture thus to music and language. By no means to blame Sanskrit, but advancement in the literature happened mostly in Sanskrit in the Bhojpuri region and Bhojpuri remained neglected.

According to Griersons, the Bhojpuri people were the most active participants in the Mutiny of 1857. Firangia and Batohiya are very popular folk literary, and poets like Mahendra Misir and Bhikhari Thakur helped in the development of the nationalist consciousness. Through literature, music, folklore and performances, Bhojpuri people have propagated the Bhojpuri cultural values which deserve due respect, and Filmfare Femina Bhojpuri Icons Award 2023 is a great effort by Filmfare and Femina.

All the images were provided by the author.