The winners of the 26th IIFA Awards were announced on Friday, October 30, through the awards’ official social media channels, and one film towered over the rest. Aditya Dhar’s spy action thriller Dhurandhar took Best Film, Best Director for Dhar, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ranveer Singh, capping a night in which the film also collected Best Story, Best Screenplay and Best Dialogues for Dhar, Best Music Direction for Shashwat Sachdev, Best Supporting Actor for Sanjay Dutt, and Best Performance in a Negative Role for Akshaye Khanna. With no physical ceremony held this year, the announcement itself became the event — and Dhurandhar’s sweep was the headline.
Saiyaara provided the night’s other big acting story. Aneet Padda won Best Actress in a Leading Role for the romantic drama, which also took Best Lyrics for Irshad Kamil’s title song and both playback singing honours, with Faheem Abdullah winning for the male rendition and Shreya Ghoshal for the reprise. The debut categories underlined the same changing of the guard: Ahaan Panday won Best Debut (Male) for Saiyaara, and Rasha Thadani won Best Debut (Female) for Azaad. Elsewhere, Huma Qureshi won Best Supporting Actress for Jolly LLB 3, Homebound took Best Adapted Story, and Chhaava earned technical honours.
The digital categories belonged to a debut of a different kind. Aryan Khan won Best Web Series Direction for The Ba***ds of Bollywood, which also took Best Web Series, with supporting acting honours for Anya Singh and Raghav Juyal. The 27th edition of the awards is already dated — Abu Dhabi, on January 22 and 23, 2027 — but the 2026 list will be remembered as the year Dhurandhar turned an online announcement into a coronation.
