MUMBAI: UTV has bagged the Institute of Directors (IOD)’s Golden Peacock National Quality award for Hindi cinema for 2004. The award was presented by Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on 14 January amidst an elite gathering of head honchos from the corporate world.

UTV creative director Zarina Mehta says, "It is indeed an honour for all of us at UTV to accept this award. The cinema and entertainment industry in the country has been seeing a paradigm shift in recent times. UTV has strived to corporatise the manner in which the movie and entertainment industry in India functions without compromising on high standards of quality. The award is a recognition for the pioneering services and cutting edge creativity that UTV stands for."

UTV has in the past co-produced movies such as Fiza, Chalte Chalte, Lakshya and more recently Swades. To ensure better distribution of films and a more transparent reporting of box office revenues, UTV has established its own distribution network across markets such as India, US, UK, Dubai, South Africa, Fiji and Japan. UTV has till date distributed over 16 films, key amongst them being Sarfarosh, Mission Kashmir and Lagaan.

The awards ceremony is a part of the Congress Banquet for the 15th World Congress on Total Quality (WCTQ). The aim of WCTQ is to integrate themes of quality, sustainability and governance in order to maximise value for the customer, shareholder, society and the planet; to make quality the epicentre for improving national competitiveness and GDP growth; and to create a seamless quality value network to anticipate and fulfill both short and long term customer needs in a sustainable manner.