The 3rd Annual Digital Studio India Awards 2018 was a night to reminisce, with the media fraternity raising a toast to the triumphs of the year gone by
By Anisha Gakhar
A big shout-out to the 3rd Annual Digital Studio Awards 2018, which we just wrapped up on the beautiful evening of 26th October! Although we are still reeling under the shenanigans, we thought it was only fair to bring to our readers an excerpt from the happenings of the gala evening. The fraternity’s glitterati graced the occasion with their presence, only to make it a night that will reverberate in everyone’s hearts, for many more years to come. After a meticulous three months of planning the nuances of the execution, the Digital Studio team put together a spectacle of an event, and garnered raving feedback from its industry peers.
Anisha Gakhar, editor, Digital Studio India and Prahlad Kakar amongst other veterans at the lamp lighting ceremony.
The gala event began with the auspicious lamp-lighting ceremony, which was graced by veteran film maker and scholar – Sumantra Ghoshal, cinematographer – Vikas Sivaraman, ad giant – Prahlad Kakar, ITP’s Saikumar Shanmugam, Digital Studio India editor – Anisha Gakhar, cinematographer – Muthu Ganesh, Zeiss’s Umender Shah and Hotel Sahara Star’s CEO – Manish Sodhi.
Saikumar and Anisha delivered the opening note, with Saikumar giving a lowdown on ITP Media’s journey in the media industry, and the brands associated with us. Anisha briefed the audience about Digital Studio’s tenth anniversary this year, and all the celebrations that followed. She then conducted an impromptu interactive session with the crowd, by picking random names from the guest-list, and hurled at them tricky yet interesting questions pertaining to the industry and its future, challenges and solutions. The session proved to be an informal, easy and on-the-spot rendezvous between industry experts; with some hilarious reactions from the very witty, Prahlad Kakar. A few of his statements cracked the audience up into a thunderous laughter.
THE PREP
The event was a carefully planned and executed one, with months of deliberation and contemplation. Anisha Gakhar, editor, Digital Studio India, explained the entire process, “The nomination process began a little over two months in advance, with nominations pouring in from all of India, under all categories. We received around 200 of them, some of which we had to drop because they weren’t complete in entirety. We chose an expert jury and held a jury-meet at our Mumbai office, for them to sift through the forms and apply their experience and expertise to filter those worthy of winning. This ensured a clean and just process. The jury included veteran cinematographer – R. M. Rao, Star TV’s Paritosh Saha, Sony’s Kingshuk Bhattacharya, and Viacom 18’s VP and CTO – Rajasekharan Harikrishnan.” The jury was then called upon stage and was felicitated by Saikumar Shanmugam, MD, ITP Media India Pvt Ltd and Anisha Gakhar, editor, Digital Studio India.
Saikumar Shanmugam, Anisha Gakhar and Manoj Sawalani from Digital Studio India, felicitating the Jury.
CELEBRATING ACHIEVEMENTS
The evening proceeded with the award ceremony, celebrating talent across various categories, including a few special awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award was bagged by legendary cinematographer, Barun Mukherjee, who has worked for Aaj ki Awaaz, Savithri, Chakra, Gehrayee, Raja Paarvai, Dekha Pyar Tumhara, Baghban, Baabul and many more. The Hall of Fame Award went to Senthil Kumar, co-founder of Qube Cinema Inc, for some truly outstanding achievements to his credit. The Editor’s Choice CEO of the Year Award was bagged by Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India, for his initiatives in developing a new Broadcast Audience Measurement system. The Editor’s Choice Special Awards were conferred to cinematographer Vikas Sivaraman with movies like cinematography for various commercials and movies including Dhoom 2, Housefull, Bang Bang, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, Sarfarosh, Rascals amongst many others under his name; veteran cinematographer R.M. Rao for his career spanning five decades during which he garnered overwhelming success; Planetcast Media for being a key market player in providing customised and requirement-based solutions across content management operations; and Nasir Hussain Shaikh, founder and MD, Light N Light, for having nurtured the company to a widely-known enterprise; and Sun Broadcast Equipments for their exemplary work in the broadcast domain, over the years. The Jury Award went to CDM Technologies & Solutions Pvt. Ltd., for having aided many global influential companies develop new workflows and outsource solutions, new facility programming and planning.
This year’s extravaganza boasted of additional categories, as compared to its predecessors. The categories under which awards were given, included Best National Distributor (Broadcasting) and Best National Distributor (Production), both of which were bagged by Cineom Broadcast India Ltd. It was a double-whammy for them, and they couldn’t be more elated. The Best Regional Distributor (Broadcasting) and was bagged by Shashi Enterprises in the northern region, Qube Cinema Inc in the south, Shrishti Digilife Pvt. Ltd. in the eastern region, and Ark Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd. in the west. The Best Regional Distributor (Production) went to Shashi Enterprises again, for the northern region. The same went to Ark Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd. in the west.
The Best National Rental Company went to Light N Light, with CDM Technologies & Solutions Ltd. bagging the Best Rental Company in the north, Real Impact Pvt. Ltd .in the south, Eskay Movies in the east, and Light N Light in the western vertical. The Best Regional Reseller award in the north, east and west, was given to SRSG Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. It was most certainly an evening worth remembering, for them. In the south, the best Best Regional Reseller was awarded to Cinthamani Computer CBE.
Another coveted category – the Best Systems Integrator, was swept off by Ideal Broadcasting India Pvt. Ltd., with Qube Cinema Inc, Benchmark Broadcast Systems Pte Ltd., and Cineom broadcast India Pvt. Ltd. following suit in the runners up positions.
HEARSAY
As the evening progressed into a night of drinking, networking and merry-making, we witnessed a surging outpour of positive reactions from our peers. Anita Parihar, researcher, academician, script writer, lecturer, who was present at the event said, “Thank you very much for inviting me to the 3rd Annual Digital Studio India Channel Partner Awards 2018. Congratulations to the entire team of Digital Studio for an excellent evening. I would special thanks to Mr S Saikumar and Miss Anisha Gakhar, spearheading the meticulously par excellence arranged award function. I would like to thank Digital Studio for its hospitality.”
Kingshuk Bhattacharya, head – Broadcast Operations and Network Engineering, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), said, “It was a great event, and I really appreciate Digital Studio’s efforts at tapping at the best talent and felicitating their work. I haven’t come across anyone else taking this initiative; kudos to a fun evening!”
Umender Shah, business head, Consumer Optics Division, Carl Zeiss India, exclaimed, “It was a fantastic event. Please count ZEISS in for all your future endeavours!”
When efforts pay off, we only feel more humbled and motivated to perform better with each passing year. The smiles we saw whilst bidding adieu to our industry folks, helped us infer that they enjoyed the evening as much as we enjoyed curating it for them. Until next year!
