Arjun Singgh Baran, Business Head – Intellectual Properties, BIG Live, says the BIG STAR IMA Awards are on a never-before scale in terms of both, popularity and acceptance of the idea, and the way it is being produced and marketed.
Why yet another award in a space that already has two music awards – the GIMA and the MMA? What is the USP of the BIG STAR IMA Awards?
The BIG STAR IMA Awards is on a never-before scale, in terms of both, popularity and acceptance of the idea, and the way we are producing and marketing it.
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In terms of popularity and acceptance, the scale is evident from the fact that it has received more than 3000 entries. Even bigger is the fact that of these, the maximum entries have been sent by the artists themselves. That’s a great achievement because something like that happens only in the Grammys, and has never happened in India so far. The best of the best, like Sonu Nigam, Shankar Ehsan Loy, Vishal-Shekhar — even Rajesh Roshan himself — have sent their own entries. Normally what happens is Music labels send the entries, but with the BIG STAR IMA Awards, it’s been predominantly the music fraternity people, the real creators of the music, who have entered.
Speaking of the scale in terms of the way we are producing it, well – we have some of the biggest superstars, led by Abhishek Bachchan and Katrina Kaif, performing at the live event tonight. The set is a massive and spectacular creation, and we are hosting the awards at the Reliance Media Works Studio in FilmCity, in the first building that’s come up, and which houses three huge studios. We are using the largest space of the three sections, which is a 20000 square feet area, for the awards. It will accommodate 1000 people. We are inaugurating the studio with the Awards.
And how have you marketed the awards so far?
We have marketed these awards through our own radio network and outdoors across our radio stations in 36 HSMs. We had a lot of celebrities coming to the BIG FM studios, speaking about the awards… promoting them. We have also tied up with Bright Outdoors which put up 15 hoardings across Mumbai. Our Big Star Entertainment Awards was the highest rated program. It was because it was a good show and we promoted it to the extent that we did, using the combined might of the RBNL verticals. We have adopted a similar route to promote the BIG STAR IMA Awards too. Of course, it will be promoted strongly in the lead-up to the telecast on STAR TV too.
Tell us about the process of selecting the winners.
The nominations are for Popular- and Jury-based categories. The process for the jury-based categories is being driven and monitored by the Indian Music Academy, which is driven by Durga Jasraj and the great Pandit Jasraj, and it has been created for the interests of the Music fraternity – the artists, creators, technicians and other music professionals. The Popular categories are going the voting route, and thousands of votes have come in so far. We have been promoting the awards on BIG FM for one month now, and the overall nomination process has actually going on for around eight months through the IMA. The jury has been busy with the nominations for one month now – they have been meeting at the BIG FM studios.
So IMA is not only getting the nominations but is also driving the process of identifying the winners. Is there no independent, third party monitoring the whole process?
No, and we didn’t see any need to get any independent body to monitor the process because first, it comes from a reputed entity like the IMA; second, the jury is made up of eminent professionals who are great creators of music and completely respected across and are a part of the awards only for the love of music. Yes, I do agree it is normally considered a hygiene factor to have a monitoring body for awards functions, but we didn’t feel the need to have one because of the stature of the people involved in the BIG Star IMA Awards.
This approach reflects the mutual confidence in the sincerity of and commitment to the awards that all three partners have. BIG Live has conceputualized and is producing the awards, and together, the three partners, which are 92.7 Big FM from Radio, the Star Network from TV, and IMA representing the Music fraternity, are committed to taking these awards to the next level.
For how long have the three partnered?
Five years.
And STAR TV, as the telecast partner, will monetize the broadcast for itself?
The IP is a co-owned property. Star will have all the rights of monetizing it for a year.
