The 8th Filmfare Awards were held in Bombay to honor the best films in Hindi cinema in 1961.

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K. Asif's magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam led the ceremony with 11 nominations, followed by Chaudhvin Ka Chand with 6 nominations and Parakh with 5 nominations.

Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Mughal-e-Azam and Parakh won 3 awards each, thus becoming the most-awarded films at the ceremony.

Mughal-e-Azam, considered one of the greatest and most successful films of Bollywood, was expected to steam-roll the competition, controversially went home with just 3 wins out of its 11 nominations, including Best Film, but missed out on Best Director (for K. Asif), Best Lyricist (for Shakeel Badayuni for "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kiya"), Best Playback Singer (for Lata Mangeshkar for "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kiya") and all 4 acting categories. Another glaring upset was Naushad's loss for Best Music Director for Mughal-e-Azam's epic soundtrack to Shankar–Jaikishan for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai.^[1]

Dilip Kumar received dual nominations for Best Actor for his performances in Kohinoor and Mughal-e-Azam, winning for the former.

Madhubala received her first and only nomination for Best Actress for her performance as Anarkali in Mughal-e-Azam, which is considered to be amongst the greatest acting performances of Indian Cinema. However, she lost the award to Bina Rai who won the award for Ghunghat, her first and only win in the category.

The following films had multiple wins and/or nominations

• 9th Filmfare Awards
• 7th Filmfare Awards
• Filmfare Awards