ZEE Cine Awards to take place in UK next year

EXCLUSIVE: The UK popularity for Bollywood is massive, we all know that! Now its set to get another huge push thanks to ZEE Network. According to press reports in India, the conglomerate is to unleash the ZEE Cine Awards for 2005 in London. This is a major coup for the network, which is already riding high on yesterday’s big news of scooping Indian cricket rights for the next four years.

“This year our regional office in London pitched for the awards and since ZEE has been so popular outside India, especially in Britain, it made a lot of sense to organise the event there,” a source in the ZEE TV Network told IANS.

This will be the second time ZEE are presenting its Cine Awards outside India. Last year, the ZEE Cine Awards received immense media coverage because of its Indo-Pak bonding at the Dubai held show. It attracted Bollywood’s biggest names such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan.

“Everybody knows that ZEE is the strongest network internationally. To harness this, plus to move away from the traditional Indian market, we decided on a venue outside India,” said Yogesh Radhakrishnan of ZEE.

In coming years, the ZEE Awards show could also be taken to the US and South Africa, which are strong markets for the ZEE channels.