Twi Fi Awards: A transparent Bollywood awards platform on Twitter

A mouth off against what many consider unfair nominations in various Bollywood awards has snowballed into an online community and homespun event called the Tweeple Film Awards or the Twi Fi Awards.

Through Twitter and Facebook, a group of bloggers and journalists initiated a social networking movement and an alternative awards platform built on the democratic thought ‘Of the Tweeple, For the Tweeple, By the Tweeple.’

Since its birth on January 1, 2011, the Twi Fi Awards have gathered over 1,700 Twitter followers and almost 800 fans on Facebook. 

Nikhil Taneja, editor, mtvIndia.com, one of the pioneers of the Twi Fi Awards, says, “My rant about stars being nominated whereas actors and artistes were ignored; box office blockbusters making their presence felt in the nominations even though deserving cinema didn’t find any space, got me so many responses on Twitter that in the heat of the moment I decided to start our own awards.” 

Taneja is not alone in his objection to popular Bollywood awards, many of which are spearheaded by newspaper and magazine groups which completely lack transparency in the voting process and pander to certain stars and producers in order to get celebrities to appear at events throughout the year.

To circumvent biases the Twi Fi jury is made up of 30 critics and 30 film buffs chosen through voting on Twitter. A separate music jury comprises 11 music critics and 11 music lovers. 

Categories and a list of nominees of the best Hindi cinema of 2010 will be decided by these two juries with inputs from any interested individual. For example, if you feel new categories need to be invented, add to the comments section here. 

A tweet up to discuss the same was held on Thursday in Mumbai.

Rajeev Masand, entertainment editor of CNN-IBN and a Twi Fi jury member says, “Every awards body in India hands out a set of Critics’ Award. It’s become something of a joke because nobody knows who these so-called critics are. These Critics’ Awards have become something of a consolation prize. The Twi Fi Awards have actually roped in a majority of prominent film critics from print, television and the web. This is the real critics’ jury that should be the only qualified body to give out a Critics’ Award.”

Besides Taneja, others behind the Twi Fi movement are blogger Somen Mishra who invited the critics on board and Pavan Jha, a critic with BBC India, who chipped in with tech support. 

“Everything from the name, to the display picture and the jury has been suggested/given by the people. And the reason they are pushing the awards is because this is their awards. At every step of the process, we are democratic, transparent and involve the public, be it to finalize categories or to select film buffs to jury. All voting trends will be made public,” says Taneja.

Adds Masand, “The basic idea is to recognize all accomplishment in film, not to pander to big stars only; to recognize every impressive performance, no matter how high-profile or low-profile the performer may be; to maintain the highest standards possible and to operate transparently always.”

Though there hasn't been any lobbying yet, we wonder if that will change once the nominations are announced.