A galaxy of stars from the four southern film industries are expected to descend on Dubai for the first ever South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA) function, to be held on June 21 and 22 at the Dubai Trade Centre. The event promises to be a grand affair. Apart from the presence of celebrities, there will be some fine performances by stars, even as the best of films compete with one another for the top honours.
The organisers of SIIMA claim that the awards have been instituted to recognise the best works in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada film industries. Explaining the objective of organising such an event, one of the organisers said, “We are looking to promote south Indian cinema on a global platform. Though the south Indian film industry accounts for the largest number of films released in India and the Indian box office collections of a successful South Indian movie are on a par with any Bollywood hit, the overseas revenue generated by a south Indian movie is only 10 per cent of what is earned by a Bollywood movie of a similar nature. In fact, several Bollywood hits are remakes of south Indian films. Just like how the IIFA has taken Bollywood places, we intend to promote south Indian cinema through SIIMA.”
Asked why the first edition of the event was being held in Dubai, he said, “Dubai has a considerable number of south Indians living there. So, we thought it would be the ideal destination to begin such a grand event. Moreover, the venue is bound to change every year.”
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Explaining further, he said, “We had a panel to finalise the nominations and the winners have been chosen by online voting. Apart from the other categories in the awards section, we have something called GenNext Awards for up-and-coming filmmakers who show promise.”
While the contenders for the Best Tamil Film of the Year Award are Ko, Aadukalam, Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai, Mayakkam Enna and Engeyum Eppodhum , the nominees for the Best Actor category (Tamil) are Dhanush for Aadukalam , Vishal for Avan Ivan , Vikram for Deivathirumagal, Suriya for 7aum Arivu and Ajith for Mankatha . In the Best Actress category (Tamil), the nominees are Anushka Shetty for Deivathirumagal , Anjali for Engeyum Eppodhum , Richa Gangopadhyay for Mayakkam Enna , Hansika for Engeyum Kadhal and Asin for Kaavalan .