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Television has surely come of age. The satellite boom has not only made the idiot box a household necessity, but in some cases it has shown the way to become the fastest crorepati. It was also known to be a disorganised industry. Hence, The Indian Television Academy established by Shashi and Anu Ranjan, earlier this year attempt to organise the industry. The first step was to celebrate the “First Indian Television Academy Awards”, which were held on November 30, in Mumbai.

It indeed was a big step put forward by the ITA to host the first ever award ceremony exclusively for the television industry. It not only shows the commitment of the ITA but also its true dedication to hold the award ceremony in a span of just a few months since inception. The show was sponsored by Hero Honda to celebrate excellence in the Indian Television Industry. The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sushma Swaraj, graced the evening and the luminaries of TV world flocked to be a part of the award function. Some of them went home smiling after winning prestigious awards.

The unveiling of the ‘Trophy’ with the scintillating opening sequence by four Russian ballet dancers, who were specially flown down for the event, were the highlight of the evening. It was the charismatic Kabir Bedi, who anchored the show in great style. There were hundreds of nominations, which not only tested the mettle of the jury members to judge the best, but also shows that the TV industry as fast gaining popularity nationwide. There were three Award Categories, which included the ‘Technical Awards’ (8 Awards), ‘Jury Awards’ (24 Awards) and the ‘Popular Awards’ (12 Awards). Apart from these three categories, there was a special segment, which featured the ‘Milestone Awards’, given to 10 path-breaking television programmes, since the inception of the Indian Television. This included Hum Log, Buniyaad, Karamchand, Ramayan, Mahabharat and others of the ilk.

The ‘Jury Awards’ were divided into three sections and the Presenters of the three segments included Archana Puran Singh and Parmeet Sethi, Niki Aneja and Rohit Roy, and Mandira Bedi and Ali Khan respectively. The ‘Milestone Awards’ was anchored by Shatrughan Sinha and Sushma Swaraj conferred the honours on luminaries like Ramesh Sippy, BR Chopra, Ramanand Sagar etc. The ‘Popular Awards’ sections were anchored by Ranjit and Sandhya Mridul, Kabir Bedi and Kiron Kher. Subash Ghai, Madhuri Dixit, Namrata Shirodkar, Yukta Mookhey, Yash Johar, Jeetendra, Rakesh Roshan, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Shatrughan Sinha, Raveena Tandon, Sunil Dutt along with Anil Baijal (CEO - Prasar Bharti) and Kapil Dev were present to give away the awards.

Shashi Ranjan, spokesperson for the ITA chose the occasion to pay respect to all those television personalities who are no more. These included Shafi Inamdar, Dilip Dhawan, Bhakti Barve, Sanjeev Bhattacharya etc. The awards function was interspersed with various acts / spoofs on TV by Shekhar Suman, Rakesh Bedi, Mandira Bedi, Rajesh Puri, Anjan Srivastava and others. Adnan Sami enthralled the audience on piano and the ‘ITA Fraternity Song’ was performed live by 20 top television stars, which was written by Javed Akhtar, music by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy and choreographed by Farah Khan, as a grand finale to the ‘First Indian Television Academy Awards’. The award will be an annual feature henceforth. The Awards will ensure that the best talent in the industry will get its due recognition from the industry itself.