South Indian movie awards to be held in Dubai

South Indian International Movie Award (SIIMA), which will reward the best works in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada cinema, will be held here June 21-22. This will be the first time that the South Indian film industry will have its awards abroad, organisers said in a statement, adding that it will be looking to promote south Indian cinema on a global platform and increase overseas revenues.

Though the industry down south constitutes the largest number of films released in India and the Indian box office collections of a hit South Indian movie is at par with any hit Bollywood movie, the overseas revenue of a South Indian movie is 10 percent of the same kind of Bollywood movie, the statement said. SIIMA will reward greatest achievements in cinema during the year 2011 which will be nominated by a jury of artists and professionals from all the four industries.

The first day will be a red carpet event with international premieres of the most anticipated releases of the year. Top actors from the four industries will perform on the awards night.

Organisers said SIIMA will be an annual affair and will take South Indian movies to new territories never explored before.