Balaji actors missing from Gold Awards

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

That there is a lot of politics involved in most awards in the entertainment industry is no secret. The nomination list of Gold Awards, scheduled to be held in Mauritius on September 23, only reconfirms the fact.

At the time the awards were announced, Anuj Saxena had said: "We are giving a platform to every actor and the winners will be judged only on the basis of merit and not on the production house they belong to." He had insisted that there would be nominations from every production house. But now when the nomination list is out, the names of Balaji actors are conspicuously missing. The buzz is that Ekta Kapoor had passed on the message to all Balaji actors not to participate in Gold Awards for some inexplicable reason.

Then there was talk that the awards function would be hosted by Karan Johar, but now he has been replaced by Mandira Bedi and Amit Verma. The first television award function to go global, the show will be telecast in India on October 4 on Zee TV.

Vikas Kalantri, the man behind the awards, said: "A gold medal is the highest achievement anyone can get and hence we have named our awards Gold Awards." Hope such high ideals are followed by the award organizers in real life, too, to give an equal opportunity to one and all.