Zee Cine Awards 2016 to put the spotlight on regional talent as well

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) is all set to present one of its flagship properties – Zee Cine Awards 2016 – with several changes in the format. Zee Cine Awards 2016 will continue with its popular ‘Viewer’s Choice Awards’ in four prominent categories – Best Film, Best Actor - Male and Female and Best Song of The Year. It has also instituted the ‘Jury Awards’ to ensure transparency in the selection process. The jury panel consists of well-known names from the industry such as Rakesh Roshan, Anurag Basu, Leena Yadav, Prasoon Joshi, Ravi K Chandran, Resul Pookutty and Shantanu Moitra.

Zee Cine Awards 2016 will be India’s first ‘Integrated National Award’, embodying Zee’s brand ethos of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World Is My Family’. This year, the Awards will acknowledge and award some noteworthy performances across other regional languages, including Marathi, Bengali and Telugu, on a national platform.

Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu and Zee Marathi will have regional anchors hosting segments of the Awards and there will also be a special performance that salutes exemplary talent in the regional industry. For the first time, a special feed will air on these channels with exclusive content for that region that is different from that shown in the premiere telecast.

Commenting on the Awards, Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said, “Reaching out to various cultures this year, ‘Zee Cine Awards 2016’ is India’s first ‘Integrated National Awards’ with a special feed of exclusive regional content in Bengali, Telugu and Marathi that will air on Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu and Zee Marathi, respectively. This is in sync with our positioning ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World Is My Family’. Even as we celebrate extraordinary achievements in cinema in Hindi and regional languages, we have also ensured transparency in the voting process with the ‘Jury Awards’.”

The 15th edition of Zee Cine Awards was held in 2014, however, the Awards were skipped altogether in 2015. Commenting on the same, Goenka said, “We missed the awards last year because we were in the process of launching new brands like &TV. However, we will ensure that it doesn’t happen in the future.”

Sunil Buch, Chief Business Officer,Zee Entertainment Enterprises, added here, “Zee comes alive in a synergistic way to deliver ‘Zee Cine Awards 2016’. Zee Music Company continues to be our music touchpoint in the fraternity. This year’s Zee Cine Awards has been conceptualised, created and produced by Zee Studios, our state-of-the-art film and TV production arm. And there is a goodness of fit to a film awards show being premiered on Zee Cinema rather than on a GEC. Zee Cinema with an average weekly base of 184 million viewers is higher than any other channel across Hindi Speaking Markets (Source: BARC-Urban + Rural India, Average of Week 41’15-Week 3’16, NCCS 4+). The simulcast of the Awards on Zee Anmol also adds to its reach in rural India.”

On the reason for premiering the Awards on Zee Cinema instead of Zee TV, Goenka explained, “The Awards started on Zee Cinema itself. So it should go back to its origin and from now onwards we will be airing it on Zee Cinema.” Zee Cine Awards 2016 will also subsequently be showcased on ten of Zee’s channels, including Zee TV, Zee TV HD, &TV, &TV HD, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zing, ETC and Zee Studio.

The star-studded Awards ceremony will be hosted by Shahid Kapoor and Karan Johar. When asked about the use of explicit language while hosting, Kapoor replied, “I personally do not support usage of vulgar or explicit language on stage. I have never done it before and I always try not to do it. I feel one should be sensitive towards others. Some easily feel bad, while others are able to take the joke.”

The Awards ceremony will also see performances by Sonakshi Sinha, Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon and Anil Kapoor, among many others.

To authenticate the voting mechanism of both, the ‘Jury Awards’ and the ‘Viewer’s Choice Awards’, ZEE has appointed Ernst &Young.

Zee Cinema will also give its viewers an opportunity to experience Zee Cine Awards 2016 live for the first time. Viewers can win this experience by participating in contests on Zee Cinema and various Zee Cinema social media platforms as well.

The Awards will be held on February 20 at Reliance Jio Garden, Bandra and will be televised across 169 countries on March 5 through various channels of the Zee Network.