An unforgettable fiesta of pride, fun, entertainment and laughter, Zee Talkies Comedy Awards, was a grand success in its very first edition. It garnered 1850 TVTs (3.91 TVR), creating newer benchmarks in the Marathi Industry. This unique and novel initiative, coupled with exhaustive promotions made Zee Talkies Comedy Awards the second highest* rated event of the genre in the past 2 years. Not only that, it also stands as the highest reach property of Zee Talkies since launch. With this property, the channel scaled up to the No. 3 position in the Marathi genre, marching ahead of a leading GEC, ETV Marathi.
The Marathi entertainment industry has had many comedy icons over the years – from Dada Kondke to Lakshmikant Berde who have immortalized comedy in our minds. The contribution of these comedy stars has always been priceless but adversely has never been acknowledged enough. Comedy forms a small part of the nomination categories in every award function be it for theatre or films. It was time to give ‘Comedy’ the respect and love it deserved, an identity of its own. With an objective to give comedy it’s long due and rightful appreciation, Zee Talkies institutionalized the first ever, the one and only comedy awards of the industry – ZEE TALKIES COMEDY AWARDS! These awards felicitated the comedy greats in film, theatre and special awards category.
This being the first year our objective was to build high credibility and honor for these awards. Thus, the responsibility of choosing the winners was bestowed upon our esteemed jury, who themselves are the true veterans of Comedy. The Chairman of the jury panel is Comedy King himself – Mr. Ashok Saraf. He along with Dilip Prabhavalkar and Sachin Pilgaonkar formed our august steering committee. Other Jury members included celebrated names like: Bharti Achrekar, Vijay Kondke, Nivedita Saraf, Purshottam Berde, Vinay Yedekar, Kishore Pradhan, Charushila Vachhani, Jytotsna Dass, Vishwas Sohoni and Vijay Patkar.
Hilarious skits, innovative dance performances and the presence of the cr me de la cr me of the Marathi film industry made Zee Talkies Comedy Awards’ first ceremony a grand success! With this, Zee Talkies has once again reinforced its positioning as a Film Entertainment Channel (FEC) and not just another movie channel – Aapla Talkies, Zee Talkies!
Source: TAM Media; Prog TVTs; All Maharashtra; CS 4+; Week 41, 2014