The channel claims to have received an overwhelming response to its contest, which invited advertising agencies to participate in creating a 30 sec film to motivate the "aam junta" citizens to vote. The winning films will start airing on both NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India from Monday 5 April.

Amongst the 163 entries received from creative agencies and production houses from various cities across India, the winning film is an entry from Hakuhodo Percept Advertising directed by Venkatesh Naidu and produced by Venkatesh Productions. The second finalist is from the production house Shooting Star, creative and film director Ricky Sandhu.

While on the third spot is Spark productions and Muncher Wadia produced film for Network Advertising pvt ltd and directed by Vijay Pereira. The consolation prize will be awarded to film produced by Cinerio The Picture Company, directed by Vishal Dhawan directed and the creative director being Ananda Mazoomdar.

Besides all the four top films being aired on the channels, the winner, the entry from Hakuhodo Percept advertising will win a cash award of Rs 100,000. Further, the channel will fund the winning commercial for its entry at the top international advertising awards such as Cannes and One Show, says a company release.

Amongst the agencies that participated include O&M, JET, Macao Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnette, Lintas, HTA, Rediffusion DY&R, Percept, R K Swamy and Mudra.

While the contest received multiple entries from a single agency, with different regional offices participating, the was some serious money invested in making the TV commercial. Most agencies that participated said that they felt strongly on the subject, adds the release.

The channel had appointed three eminent media personalities like, film producer Mahesh Bhatt, film director Ken Ghosh and leading media professional and director of the Times of India group Pradeep Guha on the jury, to ensure transparency and credibility to the judging process.

On Guha's suggestion, the judging process in the Cannes screening format, where the judges would decide yes / no, against each commercial to arrive at a shortlist. After five such rounds the winning commercial was almost unanimous, informs the release.

Commenting on the contest Bhatt said, "The number of entries received has been astounding. The quality of the work was brilliant on one end of the spectrum and pedestrian at the other end. It was very difficult to make the final choice".

While both Guha and Ghosh both agreed that most of the entries were brilliant, the choice although being tough was unanimous. Ghosh further added that the winners had distinct ideas and that the creative people should avoid the obvious.