MUMBAI: There are film awards and then there are film awards. Zee Cine Awards 2004 is taking to an international stage this time round.

Some journey it has been, from a Mumbai five star hotel Tulip Star, where the event was held last year, to Dubai Media City.

On ground promotions, on screen promotion across channels, online promotions, et al, Zee has lined up a bevy of activities to ensure that the awards have excellent recall value. Beside that, the sheer scale of the awards is something that the channel hopes to set as a bench mark.

Launched in 1998, the awards this year promises to be a four-hour extravaganza held on one of the biggest stages on 26 February, before an audience of over 8,000.

"We wanted to leverage the strength of the Zee Cine Awards worldwide therefore the decision to stage it outside India. Zee is the number one channel in the Middle East, UK, Europe. Be it in terms of sheer size, production values, artists we are pulling all stops to make it larger than the rest," says Zee Cinema business head and special projects manager Yogesh Radhakrishnan.

While the nominations are already being announced, the voting is on in full swing. Unlike the other award ceremonies, Zee Cine Awards is a combination of 80 per cent public votes and 20 percent jury votes. According to official sources, all the 32 winners in different categories awards are democratically selected through a widely held voting process. The voting campaign has already started.

Just like the vote garner campaigns held pre-Sheshan days, there is a convoy touring towns in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat, Rajasthan and Maharastra distributing voting ballots. Besides that the public can also vote via sms or log on to the special site designed by the broadcaster.

Special promos have been designed for the television to urge the public to vote for there favourite stars.

As for the actual event, the management has signed both current heartthrobs Hritik Roshan and Shahrukh Khan for individual acts. When asked about the casting coup of sorts, Radhakrishnan offered, " When we were planning the event with the Moranis, they told us that we should get either Hritik Roshan or Shahrukh Khan. But we said that since we plan to make it bigger than the best, we need to get both. Everybody, including Morani were doubtful about it, but we managed."

While the set designed by Omung Kumar is rumoured to be resplendant, the seating arrangements are within 35 meters of the stage, so that everyone can have a clear view of the stage.

The ticket sale for the event is already on. Even though the tickets are priced as high 750-1000 dirhams (Rs 9000-12000), Radhakrishnan is quite confident that they will be sold out in the next few days.

Zee has hired four charter planes to fly down the special invitees comprising the crème-de-la-crème from the industry, ad world, media planners and journalists.

While Radhakrishnan refused to comment on the budget for the event, he did offer that it was higher than the rest. As for the televised version, the channel has multi camera set up to can the event and has hired directors from UK to shoot for the televised version.

Hosted by Karan Johar and Juhi Chawla, the award ceremony besides the Hritik-Shahrukh casting coup has yet another coup of sorts: famous Pakistani stage artist Omar Shariff and India's Mr television Shekhar Suman, who will be staging a stand up act.

As for the nominations for the popular and technical category for the 7th Annual Zee Cine Awards 2004, the list is dominated by Kal Ho Naa Ho, Koi Mil Gaya, Baghban, Gangajal, and Munna Bhai MBBS, with Kal... leading the pack.

List of Nominations:

Popular awards:

BEST FILM

Baghban
Chalte Chalte
Kal Ho Naa Ho
Koi... Mil Gaya
Munnabhai MBBS

BEST DIRECTOR

Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi (Pinjar)
Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Naa Ho)
Prakash Jha (Gangaajal)
Rakesh Roshan (Koi... Mil Gaya)
Ram Gopal Varma (Bhoot)

BEST ACTOR

Ajay Devgan (Gangaajal)
Amitabh Bachchan (Baghban)
Hrithik Roshan (Koi... Mil Gaya)
Salman Khan (Tere Naam)
Shah Rukh Khan (Kal Ho Naa Ho)

BEST ACTRESS

Antara Mali (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon)
Hema Malini (Baghban)
Preity Zinta (Kal Ho Naa Ho)
Rani Mukherjee (Chalte Chalte)
Urmila Matondkar (Bhoot)

BEST ACTOR IN SUPPORTING ROLE

Mukesh Tiwari (Gangaajal)
Naseeruddin Shah (Teen Deewarein)
Rajpal Yadav (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon)
Saif Ali Khan (Kal Ho Naa Ho)
Sanjay Suri (Pinjar)

BEST ACTRESS IN SUPPORTING ROLE

Aadesh Shrivastava, Jatin-Lalit (Chalte Chalte)
Himesh Reshammiya (Tere Naam)
Nadeem-Shravan (Andaaz)
Rajesh Roshan (Koi... Mil Gaya)
Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy (Kal Ho Naa Ho)

BEST SONG OF THE YEAR

Babuji Zara... (Dum - Karim Morani, Aly Morani, Bunty Soorma/Sony)
Idhar Chala... (Koi... Mil Gaya - Rakesh Roshan/Sa Re Ga Ma)
Kal Ho Naa Ho- (Kal Ho Naa Ho - Yash Johar/Sony)
Maahive- (Kal Ho Naa Ho - Yash Johar/Sony)
Tere Naam- (Tere Naam - Sunil Manchanda/T-Series)

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A VILLAINOUS ROLE

Amrish Puri (The Hero )
Atul Kulkarni (Satta )
Irrfan Khan (Haasil )
Rahul Dev (Footpath )
Yashpal Sharma (Gangaajal )

BEST LYRICIST

Amrita Pritam (Charkha Chalati Maa- Pinjar )
Javed Akhtar (Achchi Lagti Ho- Kuch Naa Kaho )
Javed Akhtar (Na Shiqwa Hota- Tehzeeb )
Javed Akhtar (Tauba Tumhaare Ishaare- Chalte Chalte )
Sayeed Quadri (Awaarapan Banjaarapan- Jism )

BEST SINGER -FEMALE

Alka Yagnik (Odhni- Tere Naam)
Chitra (Kasam Ki Kasam- Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon)
Preeti Uttam (Charkha Chalati Maa- Pinjar)
Sadhana Sargam (Kuch Naa Kaho- Kuch Naa Kaho)
Shreya Ghoshal (Jadoo- Koi Mil Gaya)

BEST SINGER -MALE

Abhijeet (Tauba Tumhaare Ishaare- Chalte Chalte)
Shaan (Suno Na- Jhankaar Beats)
Sonu Nigam (Kal Ho Naa Ho- Kal Ho Naa Ho)
Sudesh Bhosle (Meri Makhna- Baghban)
Udit Narayan (Tere Naam- Tere Naam)

UPCOMING NEWCOMER -(Female)
Bhumika Chawla (Tere Naam)
Lara Dutta (Andaaz, Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost)
Natassha (Kucch To Hai, Yeh Dil)
Priyanka Chopra (The Hero, Andaaz)
Rimi Sen (Hungama, Baghban)

UPCOMING NEWCOMER -(Male)

Amitabh Dayal (Kagaar-Living On the Edge )
Ritesh Deshmukh (Tujhe Meri Kasam, Out of Control )
Sameer Dharmadhikari (Satta )
Shahid Kapoor (Ishq Vishk )

UPCOMING DIRECTOR

Chandan Arora (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon )
Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Naa Ho )
Rajkumar Hirani (Munnabhai MBBS )
Sujoy Ghosh (Jhankaar Beats )
Tigmanshu Dhulia (Haasil )

Technical Awards

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER

Maneesh Suppel (Pinjar )
Pooja Sarin, Theia Bomanbehran (Haasil )
Krithi Shetty, Vijay Patil (Gangaajal )
Reza Shariffi (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon )
Rocky S. (Koi... Mil Gaya )

BEST CHOROEGRAPHER

Farah Khan (Pretty Woman/Kal Ho Naa Ho )
Ganesh Hegde (It's Magic/Koi... Mil Gaya )
Raju Khan (Ding Dong/Kucch To Hai )
Remo (Meherbaan/Tehzeeb )
Vaibhavi Merchant (Shehar Ka Jadoo/Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost )

BEST STORY

Amrita Pritam (Pinjar )
Kumud Chaudhary (Dhoop )
Nagesh Kukunoor (Teen Deewarein )
Prakash Jha (Gangaajal )
Tigmanshu Dhulia (Haasil )

BEST ART DIRECTION

Gautam Sen (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon )
Maneesh Suppel (Pinjar )
Nitish Roy (Qayamat )
Sukant Panigrahi (Gangaajal )
Thota Tharani (Calcutta Mail )

BEST DIALOQUE

Abbas Tyrewala (Munnabhai MBBS )
Niranjan Iyengar (Kal Ho Naa Ho )
Prakash Jha (Gangaajal )
Sujoy Ghosh, Suresh Nair, Milap Zaveri (Jhankaar Beats )
Tigmanshu Dhulia (Haasil )

BEST ACTION

Abbas Ali Moghul (Dum )
Allan Amin (The Hero )
Allan Amin (Qayamat )
Jai Singh (Gangaajal )
Tinu Verma (Jaal-The Trap )

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Binod Pradhan (Munnabhai MBBS )
Guru Raj (Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost )
Ravi K. Chandran, S. Kumar (Calcutta Mail )
Sanjay F. Gupta (Qayamat )
Santosh Thundiyil (Pinjar )

BEST AUDIOGRAPHY

Anuj Mathur (Kal Ho Naa Ho )
Dwarak Warrier (Bhoot )
Kunal Mehta (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon )
Leslie Fernandez (Calcutta Mail )
Nikhil Shirodkar (Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost )

BEST EDITING

Amit Parmar, Nipun Gupta (Darna Mana Hai )
Sanjay Sankla (Kal Ho Naa Ho)
Shimit Amin (Bhoot)
Sonjib Dutta (Teen Deewarein)
Suresh Pai (Jhankaar Beats)

BEST SCREENPLAY

Prakash Jha (Gangaajal)
Rakesh Roshan, Honey Irani, Sachin Bhowmick, Robin Bhatt (Koi... Mil Gaya)
Sudhir Mishra, Saurabh Shukla, Ruchi Narain (Calcutta Mail)
Sujoy Ghosh (Jhankaar Beats)

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE

Salim-Suleimaan (Bhoot)
Sandeep Chowta (Dum)
Sandesh Shandilya, Wayne Sharpe (Gangaajal)
Uttam Singh (Pinjar)
Vicky Goswami (Tere Naam)

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

Huzefa Lokhandwala - Prime Focus (Bhoot)
Mark Kolbe, Craig Numma - Digital Art Media (Koi... Mil Gaya)
Merzin Tavaria - Prime Focus (Qayamat)
Pankaj Khandpur - VCL Tata Elxsi (Fun2shh... Dudes In The 10th Century)
Rajiv Aggarwal - Rajtaru (The Hero)

BEST RE-RECORDING

Alok De - Sunny Super Sound (Koi... Mil Gaya)
Anup Dev - Raj Kamal (Gangaajal)
Kuldeep Sood - Empire (Baghban)
Kuldeep Sood - Empire (Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon)
Leslie Fernandez - Anand (Bhoot)