/> Ekta Kapoor Speaks About Her Ambitious Television Awards

Ekta, your television company has decided to hold its own awards function?
Yes, we've decided to have our own awards. We've been planning it for some time now.We'll be tying up with another awards function. So it will be quite big. We hope to make Indian television awards as big and glamorous as film awards.

Combined with whom?
I can't tell you that right now. But it's a big film production house. We want to take the Indian television awards to an international a level. In a month's time we'll have a name for our awards.

How would you ensure that your awards would be different from the ones that already exist?
I feel there's a touch of class required. We want to make it as big as the film awards with lots of glamour attached so that invitees don't have to be persuaded to come. They'd want to be part of our television awards as much as they enjoy being at the film awards. We want a television award to have the same value as a film award.

Awards functions have become big business these days.
Of course our awards will be a commercial venture, like the film awards. But our television awards won't look like poor cousins of the big screen. We want plenty of authenticity to be attached to our awards. The jury will comprise of people not just from the Indian television and film fraternity but also from other areas of life, and from across the globe.

When are your first awards going to be held?
December 2007 or January 2008.

Are you going to be actively involved in the awards?
Of course. But it's too big an endeavour to be handled by me alone. I need the expertise of some of the best creative minds in the industry.

You've apparently issued as SMS instruction to all your actors to not attend any other television awards function.
Firstly, I don't SMS my actors directly. What's out in the papers isn't correct. But yes, a message was sent to some of the actors saying we're having our own tv awards at this year-end.

As far as attending other awards goes, my actors are given the option of taking time off in either September or October. But beyond their stipulated leave it's impossible to let them go. Even a two-day break means huge losses.

Most of my actors are doing two of our serials. Any break of even a couple of days means a loss of two episodes from two shows. It's absolutely impossible to let any of my actors go.

Would you take action against actors who insist on attending other people's awards functions?
Of course not. I can only take request them to be loyal to our awards.