One more film awards ? NO! But we are different. SO ? Everyone says so! Am sure that must be the initial reaction after you read the header of the post. But just give me few minutes and let me try to explain it once. If you like it, great. And if not, that’s ok.
Ask yourself –
Q. Do you have any respect for any of the current hindi film awards ?
Q. Do you even know how they are selected ? Who votes for whom and who is selected how ?
Q. Do you remember who won what awards in which year ?
If answers to all the questions are in negative, and if you are branded as a cynic for wondering why we don’t have a single credible film awards in the country, then let’s join hands and try to do something.
Honestly, we all know that the film awards in our country are just “tv shows”. The tv shows needs TRPs and so they need stars. Event companies get involved, they are asked to get the stars, and its all about the negotiation power of the star. Every year new categories are added to suit the need of the “star”. Debutant, Best comic role, Best villain , Best Jodi of the year, Best Jodi of the decade, Hottest couple, Best Child Artist, Power List Topper and blah blah blah. You name it and they have it.
There are awards by film magazines, production houses, movie channels, event management companies and some more. Scratch the surface and you get to know everything. Every year they come out with their nominations, we read and crib, they host the awards, we see and crib some more and then forget it completely.
It started in the same manner this year. Nomination lists of awards came out and we started cribbing about it. Only difference, the platform was new – Twitter. Nikhil Taneja suggested that we should try to do something. Enough of cribbing! Is it possible ? Yes, let’s give it a try.
Some of us came on board and we started discussing the Do’s and Don’ts. It all emerged from Tweet-discussions A twitter handle ( @twi_fi_awards) was created and more debates and discussions followed. Someone suggested the name TwiFi Awards and others loved it. TwiFi ? Twitter Film Awards. The idea is use to the vast and unique platform of Twitter and get everyone involved to spot the best of the cinema talent.
And everyone agreed that let’s keep it free, fair, independent and most importantly, Transparent. Whatever we do, should be visible to everyone….who is voting for whom and who is getting how many votes.
But who will decide ?
A. To filter out the best from the rest, a Jury consisting of country’s top critics and bloggers will vote to select the nominations. Critics because they see almost every film and you may agree or not, but their opinion matters. And bloggers because they do it just for the love of it. So if we get the best of the both, we might be heading in right direction. Also, the jury for music nominations is different.
To read the full list of critics who are on jury, click here. You name them and they are there! Bet you won’t be disappointed.
Once they submit their nominations, we will compile it all and put it out for voting. And everyone can vote. All you need is a twitter account.
Q. Who will decide which blogger will vote ?
A. Everyone. We asked people to nominate their favourite bloggers by just tweeting his/her name to the official account (@twi_fi_awards). Believe it or not, we got names of 70 bloggers to be part of the jury. Pavan Jha designed an application where people can cast their vote to select their favourite blogger. Voting is still open. Click here and access it through your twitter account. And to keep it transparent, your vote will appear on your Timeline too. ( We are not storing any data. Its used only for the purpose of voting)
To read the full list of 70 bloggers, click here.
And if you have any more doubts, click here to know all about the TwiFi Awards.
To know more about the TwiFi Awards, click here. To know more about how to vote for the jury, click here.
We are not sure where and how far we will reach, we are not even sure if we are heading in the right direction. But one thing is for sure – we are trying to make a change. And the intention is entirely honest. Only because we are sick, bored and tired of “tv shows” masquerading as film awards.
About 1500 people on Twitter, more than 500 on FB, about 30 critics, 70 bloggers and some 800 voters have already joined us. Will you contribute too ?
Let’s give cinema a chance.
Or you can go back and cheer for Golmaal. Or may be you can try and crack this puzzle – Omkar Das Manikpuri ( Peepli Live) is nominated for Best Performance In A Comic Role.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 