IIFA 2017: Ranbir-Anushka-Aishwarya's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' LEADS the Nomination List!

The 18th edition of the 2017 IIFA Awards is among the most coveted and highly anticipated awards celebrations that honour the very best of Indian Cinema with the highest level of achievement seen through the glamorous IIFA statuette.

Today, the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards announced the list of nominations in the popular category. Leading the race with a whopping eight nominations in the popular categories along with Best Picture is Ae DIl Hai Mushkil followed by the biopic of the former Indian cricket skipper, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story bagging seven nominations in popular categories including the Best Picture.
The other contenders for Best Picture are Neerja, Pink, Sultan and Udta Punjab.

Andre Timmins, director- Wizcraft International, the producers and creators of the IIFA movement, shared, "It is amazing to see the progress that the IIFA Festival New York has seen in the past few months as we prepare for our biggest IIFA Awards ever. Featuring a mega star line up for IIFA Rocks and IIFA Awards we will be creating entertainment like never seen before. We are thankful for so many of the industry that turned out to vote for the nominated films and people involved. It now remains for the global online voting to begin for the popular category awards to be determined. The 2017 IIFA Awards is going to be a night not to be missed and exciting times to see who finally wins those highly coveted IIFA Awards. The demand for tickets has been tremendous and I would simply advise IIFA fans to grab the hotly sought-after tickets while you still can on iifa.com or ticketmaster.com."

Speaking of the association with IIFA, R. S Kalsi, executive director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki said, "We are delighted to associate with NEXA IIFA Awards 2017 for the third consecutive year. This year we will showcase how NEXA is at the forefront of bringing innovation & delivering outstanding experiences. NEXA is not just an automotive brand but also a lifestyle brand. NEXA is all about newer and premium experiences, just like IIFA which builds lifetime experiences and felicitates excellence in Indian cinema at a global stage."

Here's the full list of nominations:

BEST PICTURE
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil - Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar & Apoorva Mehta
M.S.Dhoni - Fox Star Studios, Arun Pandey(Inspired Entertainment)
Neerja - Fox Star Studios, Bling Unplugged
Pink - Rashmi Sharma, Ronnie Lahiri, Sheel Kumar
Sultan - Aditya Chopra
Udta Punjab - Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Sameer Nair, Aman Gill, Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane & Anurag Kashyap

BEST STORY
Kapoor & Sons - Ayesha Devitre Dhillon, Shakun Batra
Neerja - Saiwyn Quadras
Pink - Ritesh Shah, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Shoojit Sircar

BEST DIRECTION
Karan Johar - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Neeraj Pandey- M.S.Dhoni
Ram Madhvani - Neerja
Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury - Pink
Ali Abbas Zafar - Sultan
Abhishek Chaubey - Udta Punjab

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (MALE)
Shahid Kapoor - Udta Punjab
Ranbir Kapoor - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Shah Rukh Khan - Fan
Sushant Singh Rajput - M.S.Dhoni
Amitabh Bachchan - Pink
Salman Khan - Sultan

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (FEMALE)
Anushka Sharma - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Alia Bhatt - Dear Zindagi
Sonam Kapoor - Neerja
Taapsee Pannu - Pink
Alia Bhatt - Udta Punjab

MUSIC DIRECTION
Pritam - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Amaal Malik & Rochak Kohli - M.S.Dhoni
Amit Trivedi - Udta Punjab

BEST LYRICIST
Amitabh Bhattacharya - Channa Mereya, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Gulzar - Aave re Hitchki, Mirzya
Tanveer Ghazi - Tu Chal, Pink

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE)
Arijit Singh - Channa Mereya, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Amit Mishra - Bulleya, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Diljit Dosanjh - Ikk Kudi ( reprise ), Udta Punjab
Armaan Malik - Besabriyaan, MS. Dhoni

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE)
Kanika Kapoor - Da Da Dasse, Udta Punjab
Neha Bhasin - Jag Ghoomeya, Sultan
Tulsi Kumar - Soch Na Sake, Airlift

BEST ACTOR IN A NEGATIVE ROLE
Neill Nitin Mukesh - Wazir
Shah Rukh Khan - Fan
Jim Sarbh - Neerja

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (MALE)
Rajat Kapoor - Kapoor & Sons
Rajkumar Rao - Aligarh
Rishi Kapoor - Kapoor & Sons
Anupam Kher - M.S.Dhoni
Amitabh Bachchan - Wazir

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (FEMALE)
Shabana Azmi - Neerja
Andrea Tariang - Pink
Ratna Pathak Shah - Kapoor & Sons
Disha Patani - M.S.Dhoni
Richa Chadha - Sarbjit

The award ceremony will take place at the iconic MetLife Stadium on the July14-15. IIFA Global Voting goes LIVE on May 20 till June 18.
Nexa IIFA Awards will air exclusively on Colors TV.