Club the awards

English proverbs hide more than a grain of truth in them. And, more importantly, they never seem to lose their relevance—even if they go out of fashion every once in a while. The one that’s relevant to this edit is: if diamonds were as plentiful as pebbles, we wouldn’t stoop to pick them up. In other words, people cherish and value only those things that are rare and uncommon. Media organisations will do well to keep this truism in mind.

Over the last month, two rival television channels have announced identically named awards for “Indian of the Year” in various categories, ranging from “Politician of the Year” to “Leader of the Year” to “Sportsperson of the Year” to “Entertainer of the Year”. A close perusal of the nominees and the winners shows that more or less the same set of people, with a few exceptions, dominated both the ceremonies. Other media organisations also have their own awards ceremonies.

Some are regional or local in focus, but most include achievers from across the nation in their ambit. The idea, obviously, is to honour achievers across the spectrum—and garner eyeballs, TRPs or readership for the host channel, newspaper or magazine. It’s a noble, and lucrative, idea, but given the veritable explosion in media in this country, one that risks getting commoditised.

These awards are still coveted because they are seen to be exclusive, choosing as they do, the winners from the rarified and exclusive club of super achievers within the country and without. But if every publication or channel worth its name announces similar—and sometimes identical—awards, then their intrinsic and recall value will get considerably diluted.

One only has to look at the film industry to see how the proliferation of awards dilutes their importance and recall value. Till a few years ago, the National Film Awards, given by the Government of India, and the Filmfare Awards were the only two awards for the film industry. These were two events that film buffs and the “culturati” looked forward to with anticipation. Then, a host of upstart media houses jumped onto the bandwagon with me-too awards, with the result that many respected film personalities now shun these ceremonies and dub them meaningless.

Don’t get us wrong. Most of the awardees are definitely deserving of the honours bestowed upon them. Our only plea to the organisers: sit down together and work out a mechanism to, maybe, club the awards so that there is one gold standard award every year. That way, the awards will remain exclusive, people will look forward to, and remember, the ceremonies, and the awardees will feel they have received something that truly recognises their achievements.