To celebrate beauty in our bleak landscape is a great idea and the VCB, now in its eighth year has been consistent in its delivery of at least one show a year. However, no event is complete without controversy and this year that controversy lies in Reckitt Benckiser (Veet)Â taking the show from Frieha Altaf to ARY Productions.
No event is complete without controversy and this year that controversy lies in Reckitt Benckiser taking the show from Frieha Altaf to ARY Productions.
Frieha Altaf, who conceptualised the show for 7 years, with Tapu Javeri who has always been a judge on the awards segment and still is.
“Frieha Altaf has done a fabulous job with VCB,” Mr Danish Khawaja, Senior Vice President of ARY Digital Network spoke to me in a brief telephonic conversation last Sunday, “but Reckitt opened bidding for the show to all channels this year and ARY won the contract. We will be show producers and will be airing the event, which will also be made available to other channels. We have engaged Nabila as Creative Director of the show. She will be responsible for the look and feel of it.”
It’s an open market and with ownership of the show, RB has the right to take it to anyone. However, Frieha did spend the last 7 years conceptualising developing the show and for its production to be yanked away (without informing her) was not in good taste. For legal reasons she could not comment on this when I called her.
But all this controversy is inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. If the show looks good, then hip hip hooray, it will get great reviews. And if it looks bad, then it goes down to a case of bad production, planning and styling. Let’s see how the Reckitt Benckiser-ARY Productions-Nabila combination works tomorrow!
