SINGAPORE — This year’s Pradhana Vizha awards ceremony, which celebrates the best of the local Indian television industry, promises to be a grand affair — the awards show will be staged at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore for the first time in nine years. The show will also be broadcast live on Vasantham.

That means the pressure is on for the nominees. The artiste with the most number of nominations this year is Udaya Soundari, who is up for Best Actress, Best Host (Variety), Best Host (Info-Ed) and Most Popular Female Personality. On top of that, she will also be hosting the show alongside Saravanan Ayyavoo and Jay Nesh Isuran.

“It feels great. I am shamelessly very proud of all the nominations that I’ve received,” said Udaya with a laugh. “It’s like, ‘Wow, really, me? Four, seriously?’ I’m trying very hard and praying that I don’t let this get to my head so that I don’t take it for granted.”

Not letting the pressure get to her is going to be a battle, though. “When people come and tell you, ‘Don’t worry — this year, it’s definitely you’, you tend to hope. And you keep your fingers crossed. And then it doesn’t happen. This year I’m warning all my friends, ‘Don’t you dare open your mouth’, because the pressure is definitely there. There’s always this small thing in your heart: ‘Maybe I might get it.’ I’m trying to keep my hopes as low as I can this year,” the 26-year-old said.

That’s because after clinching the Best Supporting Actress award in 2009, in “the following years, it has been zilch”, she said. But she’s looking on the bright side.

“If you don’t get it this year, it just means you’ve got something extra to look forward to next year,” she quipped. “Even if I don’t get anything, I’m just going to be really happy and have an extra drink or buy an extra plate of food because I got the most number of nominations, so I’m just going to celebrate that anyway! Apparently, they’re giving away miniature Pradhana awards so I’m just going to buy myself a few of those and take selfies from faraway angles.”

Meanwhile, up for the Best Actor award are Arvind Naidu for his work in Nijangal Series 3, T Nakulan for Nasi Briyani, Sivakumar Palakrishnan for Veethi Virai, Vighnesh Nagarajan for Vanjam and Vishnu M Anandh for Riya.

Best actress contenders are Bharathi Rani Arunachalam and Gayathri Segaran for their work in Nijangal Series 3, Eswari Gunasagar for Vetri, Nithya Rao for Nallathor Veenai and Udaya Soundari for Veethi Varai.

Nominated for Best Drama are Kaaviya, Nijangal Series 3, Nila Surian, Veethi Varai and Vetri.

This year, two new categories have been introduced: Best Actor/Actress In A Villain’s Role and Best Actor/Actress In A Comedy Role. And, as always, audience voting will determine which artistes bag the Most Popular Male and Female Personality awards.MAY SEAH

Catch Pradhana Vizha 2014 on July 31 at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Vasantham. More details available via the Toggle Now app.