MUMBAI: The big one on MTV's agenda is the music awards show, MTV Immies'04 - The Indian Music Excellence Award. Presented by MTV Networks India, Indian Music Industry (IMI) and Tata Indicom, the awards will be held in Mumbai on 10 December 2004 at the Tulip Star Hotel (formerly Juhu Centaur).
The awards will be filmed live and simulcast telecast to over 23.5 million homes on MTV and 32 million homes on Sony Entertainment Television on 19 December 2004.
Additionally, the music channel has also annnounced the nominees in the popular categories.
Based on the 'horror' theme, the Immies are sponsored by Lays and Honda Unicorn, while the style partner is Killer with LG Care being a partner, says a company release.
The Immies will honor artists in 23 categories across various genres of music - from Indipop to ghazals, from film to spiritual music and from devotional to International. There will be a special recognition award for outstanding contribution to the Indian music industry.
The nominees this year include Hrithik Roshan for 'Main Aisa Kyun Hoon' from Lakshya and Sanjay Dutt for 'M Bole To' from Munnabhai MBBS in the 'Best performance in a song - male' category. Mallika Sherawat for 'Bheegey Honth' from Murder and Kareena Kapoor for 'Aaja Ve Mahi' from Fida in the 'Best performance in a song - female' category. Anu Malik, Sajid Wajid and Jatin Lalit have been nominated in the Best composer category.
Touted as a world-class music awards event, Immies will bring together a galaxy of local and international music artists, and acknowledge their immense contribution to the world of entertainment.
Executed by MTV India, with the help of MTV's international 'experts' team, the Immies aim to provide Indian audiences with a world-class event of a caliber similar to what MTV produces worldwide such as the MTV Video Music Awards, the MTV Europe Music awards and the MTV Asia Awards.
Announcing the nominees, MTV Networks India, managing Director, Alex Kuruvilla, said: "2004 has been a big year for MTV with the successful second season of our 'cult show' Roadies and Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi, our first soap, catapulting us to number 1 in Mumbai with a 4 rating in only its second week. December will see a ton of new programming and exciting initiatives, led by our flagship award show - MTV Immies!"
Speaking about the Immies, IMI president V.J Lazarus, as quoted in the release, said: "MTV Immies'04 in its second year itself has been a great success with more than 300 nominees entries in various categories. We have been able to create a platform to honour, applaud and recognize the best in the Industry. IMI as a body will continue to support and improve the quality of Indian music not only in India but all over the world."
Tata Teleservices-Telecom, president Amit Bose, said: "We are proud to be associated with this mega music excellence awards. It is another special endeavour from Tata Indicom, which showcases our customer centric approach to build relationships with our customers by providing excitement and entertainment with this unique event."
Sony Entertainment Network, chief executive officer, Kunal Dasgupta, commented: "Sony entertainment television has consistently brought its viewers the best of events and has been associated with MTV Immies, since its inception. Our latest offering Indian Idol has made music the centerpiece in millions of homes across the nation and with MTV IMMIES, we will further present the best in the music industry."
The nominations in the popular categories are a result of a quantitative study conducted by IMRB across eight cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Bangalore, Indore, Kolkata and Ahmedabad), says the release.
The final nominations of the popular categories will then be put up for a 'Viewers Choice Vote' on MTV. Viewers are invited to vote for their favourite artist by logging onto www.mtvindia.com, by sending an SMS "IMMIES" to 6882 or by calling 1250-111-122 (MTNL) or 1250-122 (BSNL).
In the technical categories for gazal, devotional/spiritual and classical/fusion albums, the winners will be decided by a jury consisting of MTV and IMI members, while MTV and IMI's International label committee will decide the international winners. A separate executive nomination committee selected by MTV and IMI will decide the recipient of the Inspiration/Special Award, adds the release.
The nomination for Hindi film music nominations:
