By Aamna Haider Isani
It’s award season in Pakistan! The ARY Film Awards (AFA) are taking place in Dubai this coming weekend and the 4th Hum Awards are going to be held in Karachi on April 23, it was announced at a press conference yesterday.
“We will take the Awards all over the world,” President HUM TV network, Sultana Siddiqui answered a question about rumours that the awards were going to be held in London, “but this year we will honour our talent in Pakistan.” Out of the three HUM Awards held in previous years, two have been in Karachi whereas one has been held in Dubai. Considering that HUM TV programming has a following all over the world (basically wherever there are Urdu speaking communities) to have a traveling show would not be a bad idea at all.
In the meanwhile, HUM Awards honour all HUM TV programming at the awards, especially the drama serials. Maimoona Siddiqui, Senior Vice President Programming, said that they would gradually incorporate content from HUM TV’s other channels as well, for instance HUM Sitaray and Masala. It’s interesting that a Film category was eliminated from the final Awards Grid for 2015, surprising since HUM TV did release the very successful Bin Roye the same year. Maimoona Siddiqui clarified that the film would be honoured at the show.
Dayar e Dil, as expected, has swept most of the TV nominations.
The show itself, it was revealed to us once the press conference was over, will be a star studded event with performances by Atif Aslam, Noor and Sohai Ali Aabro. Humayoun Saeed will perform with Mehwish Hayat and Urwa and Mowra Hocane will be performing together for the first time. An all-time favourite, Ahsen Khan will also perform. The show will be hosted by Hamza Ali Abbasi, Ayesha Khan and Sanam Jung.
Maimoon Siddiqui specified that they were gradually tapering down Bollywood content in the program.
Sultana Siddiqui clarified that while the HUM Awards are currently HUM TV specific, she did hope that other channels would eventually come aboard.
The categories at Hum Awards 2016. Details of nominations can be found on the HUM TV facebook page.
