All For That Difference

All for that difference

WITH BOLLYWOOD productions crossing over on a big scale to international audiences, here is Zee Cinema taking its annual Zee Cine Awards event out of the country for the first time. To be held in Dubai on February 26, the gala event, launched by the channel in 1998 to honour excellence in various categories of tinsel town, is expected to attract the Who’s Who of Bollywood, the corporate and media worlds, besides an estimated audience of 8,000 guests and of course, television viewers through the Zee television network.

Yogesh Radhakrishnan, Business Head of Zee Cinema and Special Projects Manager, Zee Network, says, since the Indian film industry is now a global phenomenon with a fan base extending beyond people of Indian origin, the company has decided to move the awards function from India to Dubai. “Our focus to take Zee Cine Awards 2004 to an international platform is to showcase the best of Indian cinema to the world and also to delight the Indian movie-crazy Diaspora,” he says.

To be selected through voting by a set of judges and common moviegoers, 32 winners in different categories will be honoured. “Since it is also a ceremony where the fans of Indian cinema would vote for their favourite performances, you can call it the most democratic award of its kind,” Radhakrishnan adds. To the Bollywood fans’ excitement, the event, to be organised jointly with Dubai Media City, would feature stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta and Lara Dutta besides hordes of film producers and directors.

Radhakrishnan says though it would be “a four-hour spectacular”, the endeavour would be to keep the event in the viewers’ minds till the next do. But should we say, cross that bridge when it comes?

Hindu On Net