MUMBAI: The jury meetings of the programming and technical categories of the fifth Indian Telly Awards concluded late last night, (2 September).

The process, of judging commenced on 29 August with the programming jury viewing 16 categories over five days in Mumbai's Hotel Sea Rock. The technical category juding commenced on 31 August Some 17 professionals were brought together to constitute the two juries, evaluating about 1700 entries in all the categories.

The Indian Telly Awards is divided into six categories: trade awards, technical awards, channel awards, programming awards, popular awards and special awards.

Under the popular category, there are 26 awards, while there are 22 technical sub-categories. The programming category covers 15 awards. (Click here for details: http://www.indiantellyawards.com)

The jury for the programming awards category included distinguished names from the industry - Dharam Gulati, Lekh Tandon, Rathikant Basu, Rakesh Sharma, Mona Kapoor, Ruby Bhatia Suchitra Pillai, B.M.Vyas, Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, Ishan Trivedi, Goldie Bhel and Priya Singh Paul.

The jury for the Technical Awards consisted of Yunus Bukhari, Hansal Metha, Dharam Gulati and Gayatri Rao.

Members attending the jury meet offered mixed reaction. Jury member Dharam Gulati was rather disappointed about the lack of innovations in ideas and concepts on TV.

"It is disheartening to see that, despite room for improvement, there is hardly any visibility of change in ideas, concept and format on tube in comparison to last year. TV programmes haven't kept up to the improvement today's films have recorded," he says.

Gulati however pins his hopes on the churning happening on the television front with more channels planning their entry.

Ruby Bhatia on the other hand added: "I insist that channels and producers should send in more entries and also take care about what they send in as we are compelled to see and judge what has been sent. It is worth taking the pains to win the honour and recognition."

Kiran Joneja however had a fun time judging the entries, "As there is no pre-selection process, it does make our work very taxing. But that however gives a fair chance for everybody. Certain categories are mundane, while several other categories echo attempts of excellence and hard work," she said.

Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal expressed her concern about the sub-standard programmes. However she considers the awards as a medium of inspiration for TV professionals: "Awards are mainly for recognition of quality work, it is mainly to encourage creative professionals to propel their ideas and bring the best work on screen."

By the end of the week, the judges seemed all exhausted but satisifed about of a job well done!