What's happening at the Hum Style Awards? We find out
The Hum Network is just about to launch into the QMobile Hum Style Awards and before you start asking ‘Why?’, pause a bit and wonder, ‘Why not?’.
The network runs TV channels and channels need ‘special’ shows for long weekends and festival holidays. Awards ceremonies, with their oodles of celebrities and performances, happily bring in viewer ratings. There’s also the added curiosity of who the winners are going to be. TV audiences lap it up; there are ratings to prove it.
It’s why, right across the border, a plethora of awards take place on a yearly basis. But even in India, there’s just one Filmfare awards ceremony while other accolades are considered much more commercial and not taken very seriously. Similarly, Hollywood has just the one Oscars. In Pakistan, thus far, the Lux Style Awards (LSA’s) have occupied a standing as the country’s most coveted benchmarks in the field of entertainment.
Is the Hum Network merely planning to put up a show where they honor their favorites and draw in viewership or is it angling towards edging onto the LSA’s shaky pedestal?
“We want to set new precedents,” asserts Hum’s CEO Sultana Siddiqui, aka Sultana Apa. “When the results are announced, people will realize just how fair we have been. The industry is growing and we want to encourage deserving people without any bias.”
That’s a not-very-veiled dig at the LSA’s – the latter awards ceremony is the unfortunate recipient of critique every year where everybody, aside from the winners, chooses to yell ‘Bias!’ Next year, of course, all and sundry line up again for an LSA. In an industry rife with bloated egos, sour grapes play a huge role in the love and hate that alternately encumbers the LSA’s. The Hum Network is confident that they’ll manage to veer away from all such critique. Even their ceremony has been coined ‘Style Awards’ – they’re not too worried about comparisons, it seems.
“We want to set new precedents,” asserts Hum’s CEO Sultana Siddiqui. “When the results are announced, people will realize just how fair we have been. The industry is growing and we want to encourage deserving people without any bias.”
We’ll see it when we believe it. The drama-centric Hum awards – that take place every year – have often been derided for merely giving out trophies to the Network’s own projects. Sultana Apa has often said that she considers the event a morale building exercise for her organisation.
Also, TV viewers don’t care too much – they’re sticklers for song, dance and celebrities and they all watch Hum TV dramas, so they watch the awards as well.
But if the network is to be believed, the Style awards are going to be different, focusing more on building the industry rather than the burgeoning ‘Hum family’ and an entertaining TV show.
We’re a bit jaded, though. We’ve sat through too many awards ceremonies that start at abysmally late hours and then stumble their way through lackluster, doddering performances and not-too-funny skits. Will the Hum Awards manage to deliver or will they be just another addition to the awards bandwagon that’s been running rampant all through this year?
Here’s what we do know…