The 9th GR8- ITA Awards presented by Western Union.....

As we do every year we have the privilege of recognising & honouring luminaries from across the Indian television Industry - stars from across the numerous channels, programs and production houses that brighten up up our homes, day after day and night after night…

Like all these great personalities, The ITA too has come a long way since we started 9 years ago – It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for The ITA and the many milestones that we have crossed till today have each been huge stumbling blocks. But, we have toiled hard & conscientiously to overcome them & get to where we are today. Judging from the constantly increasing, thousands of entries that we receive each year, we do believe the sincerity, legitimacy & significance of these awards is undeniable – we thank you all for your faith & confidence in our endeavours to remain highly reputable and we are always grateful for your support.

Now, a bit about our magnificent industry… Idiot Box, tube, small screen… I don’t hear those references anymore and that’s because there’s no denying that Television is a winner today!

In India, television has been around as a medium of information for quite a while now. As far as leisure went, it was constantly considered just this poorer cousin of the film industry. Since the past decade however, all elements of desi TV-land have gathered momentum & it has now emerged as an independent, full-scale source of information & entertainment. It’s an all-encompassing industry, much in the company of fraternity members that the world has come to reckon with.

Be it for business-related reasons, other news & information, religious fulfilment, sports or general entertainment, the hundreds of channels we have on air are providing world-class content & audiences are hooked 24/7!

Television actors, newsreaders & even our sports-casters are the true heroes & stars nowadays… we-the-TV-people have been the flavor-of-the-month with the print media (mainly the P3 press) for many, many, many moons now….
we’re happily chased, followed & stalked by them at all parties, shows & events – we’re filling more pages than anybody else, everyday… I guess it’s so because we’re also more humble, down-to-earth and are always glad to give bytes without that extra bite… we come out in relax-mode, to chill and enjoy ourselves… we come out minus the excess-baggage… we don’t come out to “make an appearance” or merely to promote our Friday release, we come out simply to have a good time! We’re all one big family that works really hard & loves to party real hard too! Also, we walk the right way, talk the right way, dress the right way, play the right way… no wonder we’re grabbing headlines all the time.

Media trails us for many other reasons too… People today genuinely want to know us, they want to read about us and the best part is they’re not doing it secretly anymore… Inquiring minds are truly very interested in what
Smriti Irani does with her kids on weekends? Is Barkha Dutt dating anyone? And, what about Ekta Kapoor, who is she seeing? Is Sagarika Ghosh actually married to Rajdeep Sardesai, then why still Ghosh? Is Shveta Salve still living-in with her boyfriend? Do all the Baba’s that we see on all the religious channels actually own Mercedes’? Is that Roshni Chopra the same Doordarshan one we saw during cricket telecasts? Whatever happened to Mandira Bedi? And, who’s her husband? And… who else is doing what and seeing who currently?

TV is no longer regarded as the “small screen” in the unimportant or trivial sense of the word… the once indiscernible, untouchable, unreachable luminaries of the “big screen” too can also be seen, day after day, all over the place, merrily parading on TV today – Gone are the days when every TV-frat member wished to “graduate” to films, today it’s quite the other way around – Filmi-walas seem to see the silver lining around TV more than the TV-frat sees it around the silver screen! The (job) opportunity is here, the eyeballs are here, the instant & nationwide exposure is here, the recognition is here, the moolah is here… it’s ALL here!

TV is the medium that makes or breaks idols today… no matter how good you are off the little screen, you only become a household name once you’re on it… I truly wouldn’t have known an Ishant Sharma, Rakhi Sawant, Baba Ramdev, Mayawati or Abhinav Bindra had it not been for the amount of TV coverage they (and others like them) get. So, nobody’s kidding when they say that the TV Industry rocks!

And, finally, have you noticed our awards are getting larger & more superior in scale & grandeur than any film award function. Attendees at TV award affairs are the TV industry in pretty much it’s entirety… everybody shows up to cheer & celebrate the success of all others in the fraternity… from technicians, to producers, to actors, to channel owners...

Like I said, we truly are one big, fat, happy family of friends who share hopes, dreams, sorrows, and happiness....

Wishing all A Very Happy n Prosperous New year............

ANU RANJAN