MUMBAI: That the 12th annual indiantelevision.com?s Indian Telly Awards is one of the most popular events in the Indian television and broadcasting industry is known to all. And further proving its popularity is the fact that it went on to be among the top three trending hash-tags on Twitter in India on Saturday 25 May. (#IndianTellyAwards).

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Colors telecast the much-awaited Indian Telly Awards on Saturday 25 May at 9.00 pm preceding which the twitterati went berserk tweeting about #IndianTellyAwards expressing their anticipation and excitement.

Television fans could not bear the anticipation until 9.00 pm and hence began rooting for their favourite stars via tweets. And TV stars, directors, producers all added to the frenzy. TV star fan clubs went berserk as they tweeted everytime their favourite stars came on screen. Some waxed eloquent; some crooned even as a few hurled brickbats. All in all it made for a lot social media buzz.

Says Indiantelevision.com and The Indian Telly Awards founder & CEO Anil Wanvari: "We are delighted that brand Indiantelevision.com?s The Indian Telly Awards trended in India on twitter. From our side, we worked on creating a lot of curiosity around the awards through our bouquet of sites -Tellychakkar.com, Indiantelevision.com and Radioandmusic.com. We appointed a special team to create content for our social media connect. We posted pictures, videos, and stories on the Facebook pages of the respective sites and even the official Indian Telly Awards Facebook page leading to a spurt in the likes it has. And of course the on-air promos on Colors helped a great deal."

Colors, on its part, increased the frequency of the on-air promos in the days preceding the Dabur Glucose presents indiantelevision.com The Indian Telly Awards telecast. It launched a special Indian Telly Awards contest on twitter to facilitate the buzz, apart from releasing a sneak peak video on YouTube and pushing the awards on its Facebook page. The Indian Telly Awards video uploaded by Colors? YouTube channel was amongst the most popular videos on YouTube the following day which was Sunday.

Its efforts to generate and sustain curiosity for the awards along with indiantelevision.com proved successful with this feat on twitter.

"We are very happy with the engagement brand Colors is able to drive on social media platforms. Our objective has been to be the most vibrant and engaging brand on social media," says Colors digital head Vivek Shrivastav. "indiantelevision.com?s The Indian Telly Awards is one of the biggest events for the TV industry; it creates a lot of buzz and curiosity amongst both industry members and audiences. Our effort has always been to channelise these conversations positively, leading up to the live telecast of the show on Colors. This happens through various ways: exclusive images, interaction with stars, news releases, off-air marketing push, release of spoilers from the show, contest and polls on social media platforms etc. The aim is to start and fuel conversations; in the process if we get trending it?s only good."

Editor adds: "That?s being fairly modest, Mr Shrivastav!" ;)

MUMBAI: Breathtaking performances, rib-tinkling humour, loads of glitz and glamour and your favourite television stars. Find it all at the starry night that is the 12th annual Indian Telly awards, organised by indiantelevision.com.

indiantelevision.com?s The 12th Indian Telly Awards is all set to entertain one and all and celebrate the best of the Indian television industry only on Colors on Saturday 25 May 9.00 pm onwards. One of the most awaited events for those involved in any way in the world of Indian television, the awards promise three things to all its excited viewers- entertainment, entertainment and more entertainment.

"indiantelevision.com?s Telly Awards is the most prestigious property for the Indian television and broadcasting fraternity. Both Colors and indiantelevision.com have planned a wonderful show for our viewers.We are looking forward to the telecast tomorrow," says Colors CEO Raj Nayak.

Adds Indiantelevision.com and The Indian Telly Awards founder & CEO Anil Wanvari: "Winning an Indian Telly Award is extremely prestigious moment for actors, producers, technicians, and anyone else associated with TV. While we recognise excellence, we also work on putting in more than a high dose of entertainment to keep audiences at home wanting more. The 12th edition of the show is planned as a mega-spectacular with a never before seen set designed by Oomung Kumar. We designed the show to be full of fun and puns for the audiences and lots of entertainment."

Be prepared for your television screens to come alive with spectacular performances by the most celebrated talents of the Indian television industry. The very dashing television poster ?boys? Ronit Roy and Ram Kapoor will leave the viewers in splits with their quick wit and incredible stage presence as they co-host the evening with panache and bromance. Helping them keep the awards lively as co-hosts are the witty and popular Jay Bhanushali and the child like Rashmi Desai and telly land?s Chautala Kavita Kaushik.

The sexiest yummy mummies of telly world Barkha Bisht, Shweta Tiwari and Urvashi Dholakia will sizzle the screens on the item songs like Fevicol Se, Halkat Jawani, among other songs.

The lovely act by the most romantic off-screen TV couple Aamir Ali and Sanjeeda Sheikh will make one fall in love with love. Watch Jay Soni romance his on-screen partner Shamin Mannan. Watch television?s leading leadies - Sanaya Irani, Suhasi Dhami, Mahi Vij and Simran Kaur - performing in an eyecatching and rivetting prop-heavy act denoting the moods of a woman - right from passion, to envy and sorrow.

What more? Viewers can ogle at television?s hottest hunks - Gurmeet Chaudhary, Manish Raisinghani, Mrunal Jain and Gaurav Chopra - take off their shirts and even their trousers on a foottapping medley of the year?s greatest Bollywood masala hits. Their terrific bare-chested performance is sure to take the breath of female fans away.
The highlight of the evening was the very thoughtful ?family relations? act which saw beautiful and engaging performances by actors who are family in real life with segments of bhabi-nanand (Tanaz Irani and Delnaz) , real life maa- betiyan (Savita Joshi, Ketki Dave and Purbi Joshi), real life bhai-bhai (Rohit Roy and Ronit Roy), real life bhai-bahen (Krushna Abhishek-Aarti Singh) and real life shriman shrimati (Apurva Agnihotri and Shilpa Saklani)

indiantelevision.com?s The Indian Telly Awards are one of the oldest and most respectable television honours in the industry and have been successfully lauding excellence in the Indian television and broadcasting industry since the past 12 years. Its popularity is only soaring year after year.

"The response for the 12th Indian Telly Awards has been great," says Nayak. "While Dabur Glucose D has come on as the title sponsor, Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea has taken the powered by status. The associate sponsors include: Aircel, Vasan Eye Care Hospitals, Margo, Pudin Hara, Layer?s Deo, Ponds white beauty and Nycil Gulabjal. It?s great to have them on board, a property we are very pleased to be associated with, as it recognises the very best in our TV industry."

The show also has some poignant moments like TV?s hottest personality Karan Singh Grover slow dancing with his wife the ever so popular Jennifer Winget.

The winners that took the coveted and prestigious Indian Telly Award trophy home were cock-a-hoop Vivian Dsena and Drashti Dhami were declared the most popular television on-screen jodi as RK and Madhu from popular Colors show Madhubala-Ek Ishq Ek Junoon. Star Plus?s TRP garnering Diya Aur Bati emerged as a hearty winner by bagging the awards for the most popular daily show fiction as well as the popular actress and popular actor in a lead role for Deepika Signh as Sandhya and Anas Rashid as Sooraj. The award for popular actor in a lead role was also bagged by Kunal Karan Kapoor for Mohan Bhtanagar in Colors?s Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha- 2. Hot hunk Mohit Raina bagged the jury award for best actor while Manish Paul walked away with the best anchor trophy.

All in all, the Indian Telly Awards was a spectacular evening to remember with fabulous performances, surprising acts and the shinning television industry at its glamorous and entertaining best. Tune into Colors tomorrow (25 May) at 9.00 pm to catch all the action. Catch the repeat on Sunday if you are a diehard fan at 6.00 pm.

NEW DELHI: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Uday Kumar Varma feels that the Indian media industry needs to introspect on the current models of self-regulation while emphasising that the government had no intention of placing any controls on the freedom of the press.

Giving a keynote address at the News Television Summit organised by Indiantelevision.com, Varma stressed that India was the only country in the world without a statutory regulatory authority.

While stressing that the government had no intention of imposing any statutory regulation on the media, Varma stated that media must do some introspection on its own ?sooner than later?.

Referring to digitisation, he said, the introduction of digital addressable systems (Das) was the largest single initiative taken by the country for the past few years.

Das will bring transparency and will necessarily force a paradigm shift with television channels working on newer revenue models, apart from working out on new content for the consumers, Varma said.

He also claimed that in the first phase of Das, both Delhi and Mumbai had gone digital de jure and de facto, while Kolkata had gone digital de jure. In Chennai, complete digitisation eluded the government because of a stay order from the Madras High Court.

He was confident that the TV channels along with the consumer will see the benefits of digitisation in the near future, but said state governments will also have to play a role in helping multi-system operators.

News television channels, he was confident, will become more sustainable and purposeful with digitisation as it will help in developing new revenue.

On the phase II of DAS, he said that 28 of the thirty-eight cities had already achieved over 50 per cent digitisation and four were fully digitised.

He said another major game-changer will be the auction of 839 FM radio channels in Phase III, cleared by the Empowered Group of Ministers recently.

Answering a question about permitting news on community and FM Radio, Varma said that the government is only restricting political news because it was difficult to monitor the large number of radio channels in the country.

However, the government had already decided to permit the FM channels to take all India radio news bulletins and this may be extended to community radio as well.

"We are just being prudent at present, but we are not ruling out permitting news bulletins in the future," he said.

He also said that India was working towards becoming a digital teleport hub and the government was taking steps to facilitate this transformation.

Indiantelevision.com Group CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari in his opening note lauded the decision to go digital but said the industry is struggling against various odds. He also said that ad regulation by Trai will only add to the woes of the television industry which has not been witnessing robust growth in the last few years.

MUMBAI: The future of the reality television genre is good, particularly with the emergence of digital media. However, the genre is a loss leader for general entertainment channels, despite the fact that it brings in audiences and helps accumulate GRPs (gross rating points). These were some of the points made at a session during the Fusion 2013 conference organised by IMC.

Actress Poonam Dhillon, who took part in Bigg Boss, noted that reality shows are not scripted but manipulated. She, however, agreed that reality shows gave people from small towns an opportunity to show their talent.

"They know how people will react after seeing them for two weeks, day in and day out. Drama, negativity and things that are not pleasant are looked for as channels feel that this is what drives eyeballs. We have to remember that youngsters watch these shows and therefore it is important to offer something that will inspire them," Dhillon said.

Indiantelevision.com Group CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari noted that while serials and soaps form the staple diet of Indian television, it is reality shows that give spikes in ratings.

"The reality shows accumulate GRPs. Youth targeted channels like MTV and Bindass also do reality shows. ?Roadies? has developed a cult following. Youngsters connect to real stuff. Reality also has sub-genres like talent shows and voyeuristic shows like ?Bigg Boss?. Situations are built into reality shows to see participants? reactions," said Wanvari, while speaking at the ?Reality Shows on TV: Beyond Entertainment and Voyeurism? session.

Wanvari noted that a quiz show like ?KBC? went into reality TV by offering back stories of participants which wasn?t done before. He also pointed out that as a reality show goes through more seasons, the core audience sticks to it.

He bemoaned the fact that reality shows in India are toned down compared to what is seen abroad. "Bigg Boss was told to tone down or it would be in trouble," he averred.

People magazine editor Saira Menezes opined that reality shows are not actually real; it is hyper reality that people are put into. "People have to decide what reality they want to be put into. To succeed, participants have to figure out the object and intent of a show. With Dance India Dance, this is clear. With Big Boss a participant needs a storyline to standout and survive. Reality TV will grow. It is democratic and offers opportunities for people in small towns," she stated.

Actor Kabir Bedi who moderated the session, spoke about his experience in Italy doing ?Celebrity Survivor?. One thing he learnt was that people would do anything to win.

Dhillon concurred. "There is a lot of prize money at stake as well as adulation on TV. Reality TV can be cruel. Judges can put people down. Participants sometimes can get depressed," said Dhillon.

Wanvari said that TV is gaining from social media and the reality genre is no exception. "Social media allows you to tune into a show when you want to. It allows for interactive experiences. You could have short format content, clips on YouTube. Producers may cut content especially for the web. This is already happening in Europe and Asia and it will also happen in India," he added.