IndianTelevisionAcademy.com

The Event
The ITA Awards, 2007:

The Twin Torpedoes…

Two nights… two celebrations… two torpedoes…!

This year what happened at the ITA Awards was a truly, truly never-before occurrence – at least in the realms of Television. The Academy created a unique occasion of salutation for those who have made a difference in the genre. Picking up the bestests of the bests, it preceded its annual Award ceremony with a specially structured, momentously mounted and hugely haloed…

Nite of Honours…!

On the 24th November,’07, time stopped at Bhavan’s Cultural Ground in suburban Mumbai as the opening Act of ‘Revelation’ began at the ceremony. Fold by fold, level by level, the Set was revealed and that humungous structure with Chinese motifs took people’s breath away. Then, those two Chinese-style Pankhas, covering the major portion of the stage, moved apart and a huge statue of Lord Bhudha turned 360 degree towards the audience. All present skipped a heartbeat – it was such a thudding impact! And the accompanying dance of Indraneil and Barkha Bisht with sonorous Chinese beats resonating in air was a ‘seeing is believing’ kind of spectacle.

And now, Smriti Irani surfaced behind the mike. Suddenly, a Tsunami hit the place and as the shutterbugs went into a spin, all necks craned towards the stampede. It was the Legend, himself, making an entry and indeed, the kind of spell he can cast on you is beyond logic and argument.

There he was!

Taking majestic strides, Amitabh Bachchan was escorted by Shashi Ranjan to his seat. The two somehow tore through the mad melee of the media and finally, Big B could get to settle in his chair.

Instantly, on the stage, there started a medley of dances from his legendary repertoire by a bunch of kids led by the irrepressible Swini Khara (of Baa Bahu Aur Baby & Cheeni Kum fame) and Raj Pandit. The number over, Swini went into a banter with Smriti Irani asking the latter to hold her horses as first and foremost, she was going to call her Ghaasphoos on the stage, before anyone or anything else while the latter was just preparing to call upon Big B to come over the stage.

Cutely, Ghasphoos turned out to be none other than Big B and Swini came down to his seat to escort him onto the stage. He was accorded The ITA Laurel for Ultimate Eminence and the memento was given by the Union Minister Kamal Nath, accompanied by the ITA Prez Anu Ranjan.

The Shahanshah of all hearts was picture-perfect in grace & humility as he accepted the honour, thanking the ITA so very effusively. Indeed, they don’t make them like that anymore…!

That over, the string of Honours started now!

One after one, stalwarts walked towards the stage to be knighted with the ITA honours. From Aroon Purie, to Ronnie Screwvala, to Sanjay Khan, to Prem Sagar, to Dheeraj Kumar, to Khushbu Sunder (the South Indian Icon), to Sahara Shri – all were accorded the ITA Trophies and citations…

You can’t get more momentous than that…
Not in Television – no way…!

This Eve of élan was adorned by innovative Dance–concepts, one of which was ‘Baa Aur Bahu’. In it, the Baa’s of Television danced to the numbers of their era and the young, sizzling Bahu’s to the re-mixed versions of the same.

Hence, we had Shubha Khote shaking a leg to cavorting to Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon (Patanga, 1949) and then, Amrapali Gupta swinging to its re-mix... Shama Deshpande dancing delectably to Leke Pahala Pahala Pyar (CID, 1954), followed by Karishma Tanna to its new revamped version… and lastly, the high-energy Savita Prabhune matching steps to the bumpy beats of Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar (Aar Paar, 1956) and then, Jaswir Kaur taking over to break into sensuous gyrations with the same song re-done musically.

In sum, it was a night that had everything in it – star-power, rocking entertainment and of course, to cap it all – Amitabh Bachchan…!

A sublime Nite, a stupendous night, a stimulating night…
This Nite of Honours!

But if you thought the night was the ultimate – think again! There still was another ace up the ITA sleeve…

The Awards’ Nite!

Following the historic Nite of Honours and amidst the presence of the all & sundry of the TV-fraternity, the Awards Nite, too, was a spectacle of rare sizzle. While trophies after trophies were presented by the upper-crust of the medium to the winners of the both the Jury & the Popular categories of the awards, the pundal resounded again and again with deafening taaliyan & seetiyan.

The evening was lip-smacking in being spiced up with such Garam-masaala as dance-numbers by the Dandies like Kushal Punjabi, Chaitanya, Arjun Bijlani etc. and Candies like Priyanka Bassi, Jennifer Winglet, Suhasi and others.

And while the Dandies wooed the Candies, the terrific trio of Sumeet Raghwan, Ashka Goradia and Manish Raysinghani created a rip-roaring item on the Bhai world that sent the audience reeling into peals of laughter.

Then, the finale celebrated Vande Maatram (the Rahman version) with Pulkit Samrat & all the performers along with the members of the TV-fraternity hopping onto the stage in an unprecedented burst of abandon.

The moment was electric!

And lightning was the impact of the Twin Nites that has left an indelible impress upon those attending, to this day. Later, the Television capsule of the entire event was telecast by Star Plus to unheard of TRP’s (a measure for popularity on Television) for an event on the tube.

The ITA NIGHT OF HONOURS: