A few days ago yet another media group jumped into awards business: Zee Tamil. It is no earth-shattering news, but it demands our attention nevertheless. You may recall that after running a few editions, Star Vijay stopped its own version — Vijay Awards — citing lack of interest among audiences. However, Star group found a solid footing in the state with plenty of satellite and digital (Hotstar) rights acquisitions. Seen on that front, this venture by Zee Tamil, which is all set to present its first edition of awards from 2020, will help them become a major player among Tamil satellite channels through movie rights acquisitions. Considering this, we cannot really expect cent percent integrity from this group as well.
An interesting aspect though is the selection of members for the jury panel. They have got it right in their first ever edition itself by choosing five eminent personalities who, to quote Suhasini (one of the jury memebers herself), “have never compromised in [their] works” to serve as juries: Baradwaj Rangan, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Bharat Bala, and Karu. Palaniappan. One has to wait and watch if the jury body has complete authority over the selection of winners which will foster some sort of credibility to its name.
To weigh the worth of Zee Cine Awards Tamil, you can compare our set of winners and the one from Zee Tamil — though it is not certain if they would consider only the films from 2019 (a movie still from a 2018 release was seen in one of the launch posters) — after their event on January 4, 2020.
the Common Man's Standardized Awards for Tamil Cinema 