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Pradhana Vizha 2016 awards nominees revealed

SINGAPORE — Four artistes have topped the list of nominees for the upcoming 15th Pradhana Vizha awards, garnering four nominations each — a first for the awards show, which will take place on Sept 17. The ceremony, which takes place every two years, honours the best in the local Indian television industry.

SINGAPORE — Four artistes have topped the list of nominees for the upcoming 15th Pradhana Vizha awards, garnering four nominations each — a first for the awards show, which will take place on Sept 17. The ceremony, which takes place every two years, honours the best in the local Indian television industry.

The four nominees, who were revealed on Monday at a press conference, are Jaynesh Isuran, Indra Chandran, Vikneswary Se and Karthikeyan Somasundaram. What’s more, Indra and Vikneswary, who both entered the industry via the Miss Vasantham reality pageant show, are in competition with each other for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Info-Ed Host and Most Popular Female Personality.

In addition, Udaya Soundari, who took home the Best Actress and Most Popular Female Personality awards at the last ceremony, is nominated again in the same categories.

Audience darling Jaynesh, who is nominated in the categories of Best Actor, Best Comedy Actor, Best Variety Host and Most Popular Male Personality, was self-deprecating about his achievement, quipping: “That means I’ve done a lot of work in the past two years!”

Best Comedy Actor, he added, was one nomination he did not expect; he earned it for his work in Kudumbam United 1, a show that takes a humorous look at the life of a seemingly ordinary Indian family. And the Best Actor award — he was nominated for playing a teacher in drama Vetri 2 — is the one he has the least confidence for. “We have Karthik, who acted as a 20-year-old to a 70-year-old. Then we have Puravalan Narayanansamy, who is a senior actor. So, it’s a pretty tough fight,” he said.

The person who will probably be more nervous than him is Eswari Gunasagar, who, on top of being nominated for Best Actress and Most Popular Female Personality, will also be hosting the awards ceremony with Karthikeyan, Vishnu M Anandh and Gayathri Segaran. “Hosting in Tamil has always been a challenge for me — I’m fluent in English,” she said.

So, “I’ve just got to be myself, keep calm and enjoy the moment ... There are many talented actors and actresses in Vasantham, and being handpicked by a panel of judges for a nomination is really the biggest achievement. From where I came from, where I started; I think I’ve come a long way, and getting a nomination is a big win in itself”. On top of that, she added, “hosting in the new theatre is going to create history in itself, hopefully”.

For the first time, the Pradhana Vizha awards show will be held at The Theatre @ Mediacorp. A total of 27 awards will be given out, including a Lifetime Achievement Award that will be presented by the guest of honour, Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information and Ministry of Education, Dr Janil Puthucheary. This year also sees the introduction of a new award category, Best Telemovie, while the Vasantham drama that had the best showing was Vettai 3, which has earned 11 nominations — the most this year.

The show will see performances by Shabir, Pravin Saivi, Suthasini, Kaushik, Vishnu Balaji, Erfanulla and Elamaran.

 

The Most Popular Male and Female Personality awards, as well as the Most Popular Drama Song, will be determined by online voting. You can vote for your favourites from Aug 19 onwards at toggle.sg/PV2016. Tickets for the show are available from Sistic at S$15 each.

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