The SIIMA Awards 2012

After all the film premiers and promotional events, Dubai was the venue for yet another biggie last fortnight – the first ever South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA), 2012 or the Tollywood equivalent of Indian International Film Awards (IIFA). It was a glamourous, international platform to celebrate and honour the biggest names in south Indian cinema across the four languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. And as is well-known, the south film industry is as big, if not bigger, than Hindi cinema. When it comes to the stars, the hero-worship, the glamour, the ideas and of course, the money – Bollywood is beaten hollow by its southern counterparts!
So when you have an awards night that brings together some of the biggest names from all the four languages for the first time, your expectations are naturally sky-high. Alas, sometimes ‘great expectations’ lead to great disappointments! So while it was a treat to watch our southern superstars on stage, there was also a sense of déjà vu at the tame performances, technical glitches and mismanagement. Simply put, it was not very different from a Bollywood awards night! Here are the highlights and the lowlights from the night that South Indian cinema sparkled!

Impressive Guest List
The event certainly attracted some top names from Tollywood – Rana Daggubati, Dhanush, Madhavan, Khushboo, Namitha, Asin, Trisha, Shriya Saran, Sameera Reddy, Ajmal, Prakash Raj and Charmi to name just a few. Madhavan was the host of the night and he was supported by former Miss India Parvathy Omanakuttan and Lakshmi Manchu. Bollywood was represented by Sonu Sood, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor and Sohail Khan.