Over the next two days, UAE will light up with a galaxy of stars from the southern film industry.
The fourth edition of SIIMA (South Indian International Movie Awards) is being held at Dubai World Trade Centre on Thursday and Friday.
“South Indian film industry doesn’t have many awards. South Indian films have almost the same box office revenues in India as Bollywood films do, despite releasing only in one state, unlike Bollywood films that release in more than one state as well as overseas. [So we thought] why not [have] a global platform for South Indian films.” Brinda Prasad, chairperson of SIIMA told tabloid!.
SIIMA was launched in 2012 and brings together the fraternity from Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinemas. Like any new experiment, SIIMA too faced challenges. Prasad said.
“We had to keep in mind that artists would lose out three to four days in travelling for the event. Besides, coordinating with around 100 winners from four languages is not an easy task,” he said.
“Convincing big stars to travel abroad when SIIMA was not established was another [challenge]. But then the awards will be not be established if artists don’t attend. Things improved and today we have the support of most of the big stars from all the four south Indian languages.”
The SIIMA awards are finalised through public voting. This year around five million votes were polled. Three months ahead of the show, a panel of ten film critics pick the nominees.
Besides the regular awards in various categories, this year, a lifetime achievement award will be given to Malayalam cinema’s KPAC Lalitha and Tamil films’ Bharatiraja. A special tribute award will be presented to legendary film producer late D. Ramanaidu, who holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for producing the highest number of movies in over 15 languages.
SIIMA also plans to take the event to a higher level by recognising south Indian entreprenuers who have made a mark globally and a difference in society.
“We want to extend the two day SIIMA event into three days from next year. The third evening will celebrate South Indian Business Achievers.”
For more information log onto siima.in.
Did you know?
Shreya Ghoshal has been nominated in all four languages for best playback singer
Father and son (Mammootty and Dulquer Salman) lock horns with their nominations in best actor category (Malayalam)
Cinematographer turned directors Venu and Amal Neerad contest in the best cinematographer, best film and best director categories with their films, Munnariyuppu and Iyobinte Pusthakam (Malayalam).
Suhasini Maniratnam has been nominated twice for best actor in supporting roles in Tamil film Ramanujam and Kannada film, Sachin Tendulkar Alla.
Malayalam actor Jayasurya has been nominated in two categories, one for supporting role (Apothecary) and the second for best actor in negative role (Iyobinte Pusthakam).
