KOCHI: This is probably the first time in South India that an award has been launched exclusively to honour all those associated with the music industry. Mirchi Music Awards South 2010 instituted by Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM is gearing up to celebrate excellence and felicitate deserving composers and performers down south.
“Every year several songs and albums are released but very few get noticed. Some might get their due recognition in award ceremonies.
However the effort that goes into making music for films doesn’t get its due credit. Mirchi Music Awards gives musicians an opportunity to promote those songs that fail to reach the masses,” said Prasanth Pandey, CEO, Entertainment Networks India Ltd.
In Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam film industries, the awards will be judged by a jury that stands out for its personal achievement, passion for music and unerring judgment about the finer nuances of music. In Kerala, the winners will be decided by a panel of members chaired by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri.
“The Mirchi awards is equal in prestige to the Filmfare award. What makes it stand out is that it honours even those who accompany the singers on the instruments.” Sibi Malayil, another jury member, said, “The Mirchi awards can be called the south Indian Grammy. It is an encouragement to musicians of the day.” The jury members can nominate their own songs for the awards but they will abstain from voting. “The voting process is unbiased. This makes the awards special,” said jury member Anil Panachooran. The other members include K S Chitra, Deepak Dev, M Jayachandran, Jassie Gift, Jensy, Arundhathi, Aashiq Abu and Raghu Kumar.
The awards will felicitate musicians across 10 categories including best song of the year, best new singer (male and female) and best music director.
The jury will select five nominees in each category. The winner will be declared on July 17 at a function to be held in Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai. For the popular awards, the opinion of Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM listeners will be counted. By voting for their favourite film album and song of 2009, the listeners will get a chance to attend the award function.