REPORT
orable show. Lately, though, the LSAs have veered towards the mediocre, putting out half-baked, low-budget
events or worse, no event at all.
What’s even more unfathomable is the awards office’s
ease with meting out accolades for the previous year at
the tail-end of the next year. It doesn’t make sense. The
world over, the initial months of the year signify award
season, beginning sometime in early January and culminating usually around end February with the Oscars.
Our desi LSAs, meanwhile, found nothing wrong with
giving out awards in November last year to the winners
of 2013. By this time, of course, people had more or
less forgotten the previous year’s achievements.This
year, sadly, seems to be following suit. Even though jury
meetings were held as early as March, the LSA event
is tentatively scheduled for the last quarter of the year
with no confirmed date announced as yet.When will the
LSAs put their act together? “Soon,” says Fareshteh
Aslam, Country Head at Golin Pakistan and in-charge
of LSA’s media management, rather optimistically. “We
have a number of exciting plans for the upcoming LSAs
that we cannot discuss at the moment.”Since great timing can’t possibly be credited to the upcoming awards,
one can guess — and hope — that the organisers are
cooking up a grand show. For one, Fawad Khan and
Mahira Khan are sure to be a part of the event as they
are the new faces of Lux’s latest campaign. Last year,
Fawad created a furor when he hosted the ‘House of
Lux’ dinner with Iman Ali. Now that he is making inroads
into Bollywood with an upcoming Karan Johar movie
and Mahira is riding high on cinematic success, featuring the Humsafar pair together is bound to be a major
feather in the LSA cap. It also pretty much guarantees
high viewership ratings.However, what won’t guarantee ratings are humdrum performances and hackneyed
odes. We’ve seen enough tributes to Madam Noor Jehan and Nazia Hassan to last us a lifetime and while Ali
Azmat continues to be our favorite rockstar, how many
more times will he come onstage lip-syncing to his hit
songs from long ago? The same goes for Zoe Viccaji
who is easy on the ears and eyes but has featured in
enough award shows to now be positively boring.Having
retreated from the spotlight last year, the LSAs need to
come back with a bang, being entertaining and inventive
enough to keep audiences hooked. Tributes are important but so is highlighting the new stars in Pakistani entertainment. It’s been a promising few years for cinema
and one hopes to see today’s ‘it’ stars traipsing across
the LSA stage: Sikander Rizvi, Humaima Malick, Fahad
Mustafa, Ayesha Omer, Danish Taimoor, Sohai Ali Abro,
Armeena Rana Khan along with Fawad and Mahira.
One also hopes to see plenty of high fashion — that’s
one quarter where the LSAs never disappoint — and
performances reflective of the nascent talent struggling
to make waves in local music, oscillating from Coke
Studio’s soulful synergies to the beats of underground
rock.Ever since their inception, LSA events have been
masterminded by the very accomplished Frieha Altaf.
Frieha’s done it all; balanced star schedules so that they
could be available for the event, coerce a squabbling milieu of starlets into delivering exceptional performances
and guarantee a scintillating red carpet. While organizers are yet to confirm whether Frieha will be part of this
year’s event, it would certainly work well if she is roped
in, wielding the flair and organizational skills that are
characteristically, exclusively hers.Regardless of whether the event manages to bring on the glamour, the LSA
award results this year are bound to be mired in conflict.
Speaking on why they have backed out of the Television
nominations, authorities at Hum Network explained,
“Even last year, we complained of the open favoritism
within the LSAs when our drama* Zindagi Gulzar Hai*
was not considered in the Best Satellite Play category,” explained Hum TV officials. “We may not win but
hard work in the field at least needs to be recognized.
Again, this time, we felt that the nominations were not
fair and we decided not to be part of an awards system
that lacked balance and credibility.”Fareshteh Aslam reiterates, “Channel owners know that a television play is
only eligible for a nomination if 70% of it has been aired
during 70% of the awards year. I am surprised that they
still continue cribbing. The industry is getting bigger and
only a handful can get nominated. The jury’s decisions
may get queried but they also have to be respected.Otherwise, everyone may just as well nominate themselves
on a quota basis!” Looking at the LSA nominations over
the years, this makes sense. Currently, ARY’s dramas
may dominate the Television nomination categories but
there was also a time when almost all the awards would
be won by either Geo TV or the Hum Network. With
last year’s hit Pyare Afzal to its credit, ARY is bound to
win in several categories this time but who knows what
may happen next year?Nominees are sensitive about
their work and despite being criticised constantly, the
LSAs stand apart from other entertainment-based local
awards ceremonies. The Hum Awards, in their third year
now, taking place early in the year and boasting plenty
of star-power, lose clout because they focus on just the
Hum Network’s own