Betting big on Awards: Life OK's Thakur

Since its inception, channel Life OK has invariably explored the programming space with differentiated content across genres be it in the fiction or the non-fiction space. Year 2014 saw them hosting the 20th Annual Life OK Screen Awards which turned out to be a huge success for the channel. Now within a span of 6 months, in keeping with the needs of the NOW generation, their instant demands, gratifications and expectations of instant results, Life OK, in partnership with BIG Productions, has introduced the Life OK Now Awards.

It goes without saying that in India there are countless Awards and a few known ones such as Life OK Screen awards, IIFA awards, Zee Cine Awards and Filmfare Awards are  hosted on a mass scale on a yearly basis.

Ajit Thakur, General Manager, Life OK, shared with us his thoughts on what is unique about the Life OK NOW awards.  He said, “Being India’s fastest growing GEC, our content innovations has cemented our connect with family audiences and every launch of ours has taken this connect a notch higher. After the immensely successful Life OK Screen Awards, we are now presenting industry’s first instant 100% public voting awards, Life OK NOW Awards. This one-of-a-kind award will give an opportunity to the audiences to vote for, celebrate and cherish their favourite stars instantly and regularly. We are glad to be associated with BIG Productions and together we are all set to create fabulous entertainment for our viewers.”

Life OK NOW Awards,  India’s first Instant Awards  will celebrate and recognize the best entertainers in Bollywood, Music and Television industry each month.  Winners will be selected only through a Public Voting Campaign.

Briefing us about how the idea was conceptualized he explained ,“ There are numerous shows and films of different genres  which get launched in a year and people tend to remember the latest ones amongst them and the ones which are trending, post that they forget the films, songs, shows etc. We thought that why not give recognition to things which are NOW, as there are exciting things happening always  month on month basis then why to celebrate it only once in a year by hosting yearly Awards! Youth consume content instantly and so it’s targeted towards the popcorn generation of today. We started off with Screen awards, we have fiction properties and now we want to grow in events space too.”

Conceptualized by Life OK, the Awards will be produced by BIG Productions and have 92.7 BIG FM as the radio partner. As a part of the promotional campaign, Life OK will be creating engagement and excitement throughout the country by promoting various award categories across multiple media platforms. The Awards property will reach huge HSM audiences through Life OK’s massive distribution network.

Akshay Kumar has been selected to be  the  face of the 1st Life OK NOW Awards  which will be airing on 31st May 2014 at 8p.m. He along with Sonakshi Sinha will perform at the Awards and also promote their film Holiday along with Vipul Shah, Director of the film who will release the content from the film for the first time during the award function.

Vipul Shah, one of India’s leading Film Producer and Director, said, “It is my pleasure to be associated with Life OK NOW Awards for my film Holiday. A soldier is never off duty, it’s a great association. This is the first time that I have associated with Life OK for any of my films and it’s a fantastic association. This is the only award where your vote will decide the winner.”

The categories and nominations in the first awards include - Best film – 2 States, Main Tera Hero and Bhootnath Returns ; Best Actor Male - Arjun Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Amitabh Bachchan ; Best Actor Female- Kangana Ranaut, Ileana D'Cruz and Aliya Bhatt ; Best Song – Imandari - Main Tera Hero, Party with Bhootnath- Bhootnath Returns and Mast Magan -2 States ; Life OK – Hero of the month- Tara- Ek Boond Ishq, A.C.P Diler- Shapath and Paakhi- Tumhari Paakhi.
The films will be shortlisted by a jury panel comprising of officials from Life OK, Big Productions and industry experts but will also be depending on Box Office results. There will be total of 10- 11 categories out of which 7 categories will remain steady and rest 3- 4 will  change as per the theme and time. Moreover there will be one TV category Hero of the Month that will honour talent from the Life OK channel.

Talking about the uniqueness and USP of this Award, Thakur said, “Firstly it’s an 100% instant award recognition to celebrate success of films and also to celebrate some of Life OK’s success. We are using Your Vote Your Choice method which means it is a 100 % audience vote which will decide the results. We will celebrate excellence every month and also provide a new platform for Bollywood for film promotion. We are starting it with ‘Holiday’ and we have three other films in the list who are participating.”

Although Wild Stone is the powered sponsor for the Life OK NOW awards, the channel is being urged to sign deal with other sponsors too. In terms of performance for first Awards,  Life OK Now Awards will have some of the most renowned Bollywood and TV artistes like Ritwik Dhanjani, Ellie Avram, Bad Salsa group and others who will come together to perform and entertain their fans and audience. The event will be hosted by actors Richa Chaddha and Varun Sharma of Fukrey fame.
The channel will be using 360 degree marketing mix for the awards and Star Network  and Big FM  with 45 stations in order to get maximum reach and plans to create 80 % buzz via Star Network.

The promos of monthly entertainment property, Life OK NOW Awards went on air on 14th May 2014 and  the first  award functions is to be held on 21st May 2014 at Reliance Studio, Mumbai. The event will be aired on Life OK as a two-hour show on 31st May 2014 at 8 p.m. only on Life OK.