Hyderabad: Most stars from the Tamil industry did not attend the 65th edition of the Filmfare Awards (South) held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on Saturday, 16th June 2018 as the NadigarSangam, the Chennai based South India Artists Association, has decided to stay away from the Awards event.
Due to the Boycott, even stars like Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi who were to receive awards for best performance abstained from participating in the award ceremony.
However, the event has witnessed the participation of Stars from Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam film industry. In addition to that Artists like Amala Paul, Catherine Tresa, Prasanna, Sneha, AditiBalan, Madhavan and NithyaMenen were the few exceptions who took part in the event.
Reason to stay away from the most prestigious events in the industry was taken when Filmfare refused to pay the donation demanded by NadigarSangam. Subsequently, the actors’ association headed by Vishal decided to boycott the event.
Instead, the Kollywood stars had participated in the Behindwoods Gold Medals, Vijay TV Awards and Galatta Dot Com Awards, as these three entities had paid a trust run by NadigarSangam between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 40 lakh.
According to the NadigarSangam, “In the past, there have been several film related functions, award ceremonies, dance programmes and television programmes in which actors have participated and many have performed in such functions. However, in recent times, such functions have taken a commercial twist, and are conducted as a means to generate huge revenues for such organising entities. Considering the above, it had been officially resolved in NadigarSangam special meeting that actors should participate only in functions in which they are paid, or only in functions where the organising entities contribute donations to Nadigar Sangam and Tamil Film Producer Council.”
The money donated by the private award ceremonies were used to provide health and educational aid to deserving members.
“This practice and decision has been communicated clearly to Filmfare Awards organisers in view of the function to be held in Hyderabad. Since the organisers of the event did not cooperate and come forth with any positive response, the same was communicated to our members,” the association said.
Participation of Celebrities from Film Fraternity adds value to the Awards Ceremony and the organisers are able to earn revenue from Sponsorships and Satellite rights of these shows. The Artist Association is expecting the Organisers to share a portion of their revenue towards the welfare of the members in the form of donation.
Absence of Stars from Tamil film industry could hamper the prospect of exploitation of the Satellite rights of Filmfare Awards South in Tamil Nadu market, which is a primary South Indian market for advertisers.
