B'wood awards ride only on glamour

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Keywords: GIFA, IIFA

Mumbai: And the awards goes to... anyone and everyone! Yes, that’s what Bollywood awards have come to. These days, awards include everything from a glossy red carpet to star performances, special awards to extra-special awards.

But what about excellence in cinema? Does anybody really care? Take a look at some recent honours that were distributed:

At this year’s IIFA Awards, actress Shilpa Shetty gets a special IIFA honour.

Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan gets the award for the most glamourous face of 2007.

At GIFA Awards, Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra were given awards for the most searched actors on the Internet.

And here is the most shocking one award: Best debut director award went to organiser's close friend Vikram Chopra for The Fight Club, a film that was a critical and commercial washout.

Stardust awards had some unique categories as well: the hottest film producer went to Big Screen Entertainers, Kumar Mangat for Omkara and also hottest young filmmaker award went to Sanjay Gadhvi for Dhoom 2 .

“Yes, many a times some ridiculous categories are introduced that are really stupid. I wonder how people accept them, they should just stop accepting these awards,” said filmmaker Karan Johar.

So what are film awards about? Is it just plain TV software and celeb networking? Is it all about the commerce that comes out of it? Is the focus just on who is attending, who is wearing what and who is performing? What about really honouring the best in cinema?

“Lets get one thing clear. Awards are TV shows. It is all about who is attending,” said filmmaker Kunal Kohli.

“What can be done? Yes, the focus is on who is wearing what on the red carpet. But that’s what people watch,” said Karan Johar.

But award organisers have their own explanation. “We have a proper procedure. There is a jury that takes care of excellence in cinema,” said the IIFA organizer, Sabas Joseph.

The debate can go on and on. But with the organisers making pots of money and selling awards rights to channels, somewhere they should at least start focusing on true excellence in cinema.

When will we have that one brand of awards which may be not be as credible as the Oscars but which at least will not be as trivial to make us cringe in embarrassment.