Renowned directors Nikhil Advani, Sudhir Mishra along with Book My Show’s Monisha Singh Katial meet to judge nominees of the upcoming iReel Awards, the web series awards in India
Mumbai: News18.com’s iReel Awards 2018 is gearing up to celebrate the outstanding talent and creativity in the web series content segment. Scheduled for 6th September 2018 at JW Marriott, Juhu in Mumbai, the award nominations include some exceptional work put forth by major OTT players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, ALTBalaji, Zee5, Voot as well as YouTube among other video platforms.
The recently held jury meet saw established Directors Nikhil Advani, Sudhir Mishra and Vice President, Content & Strategy, Book My Show – Monisha Singh Katial judge and discuss the well deserved nominees of the awards. Enthralled by the content and creativity in the web series segment, they admitted it was difficult to pick one winner in multiple categories.
Speaking about how web series have impacted content creation, Nikhil Advani, Producer, Director and Screenwriter said, “Digital content is all consuming and present everywhere today. There is a visible shift from television to digital with more people embracing the latter. The reason for this is that it allows us to make and tell different stories and present it the way we want to. The important thing for most film makers is to be able to have a voice. I think that interesting directors wanting to do interesting stories get caught in the hullaballoo of mainstream cinema. In the web space, they have the opportunity to voice out their creativity.” Adding that iReel is a great initiative to motivate creators in the digital segment he said, “A lot of thought has gone into the various categories at iReel Awards. I’m very happy that there’s an ensemble cast category that does not exist in any of the award shows, anywhere.”
Throwing light on the immense opportunities that web series provide to various talents, Director and Screenwriter Sudhir Mishra said, “The platform has opened opportunities for new actors, new film makers and new ideas. Additionally, the revenue model of the web is interesting because they are not looking for the success of each show but focus on reaching specific audiences for every show.” Supporting the web series specific awards he said, “It’s great to have awards that concentrate on one particular segment. It makes it easier to compare performances vis-à-vis selecting a winner across different spaces.”
Commenting on the trend of celebrated actors switching to web series, Monisha Singh Katial, Vice President, Content & Strategy, Book My Show said, “Content is platform agnostic. It depends where you place it. The web is an opportunity for every new comer and every seasoned player – be it directors, established film actors or freshers. There’s space for everyone. It depends on the kind of content one is creating and the level of actors you need. The same goes for consumers; every individual has something to watch as per his or her liking.”
“Sharing his perspective on the unique iReel Awards, Manish Maheshwari, CEO, Network18 Digital said, “At News18.com, we strongly believe in innovating and staying ahead of the game. After the incredible success of Reel movie awards, iReel Awards is the second edition of our awards which focuses on appreciating creators of Indian web series. As one of the leading digital platforms with 100 million monthly unique visitors, it was only fitting to be the leader in recognizing the innovation in content creation for the web series space. With iReel Awards we aim to reach out to the best, the brightest and compliment their excellent work.”
Nominations can be seen here : News18.com/i-reel-awards2018.
Co-powered by Madame, the iReel Awards have Xoxoday as the Associate Partner. Radio City is on-board as Radio Partner, UFO Digital Cinema is the Cinema Partner, Jio Digital Life is the Digital Partner and News18 India is the News Partner.
