Nigar Awards

Nigar Awards
نگار ایوارڈز
Awarded for Excellence in cinematic achievements
Country Pakistan
Presented by Nigar Publications
First awarded 17 July 1958 (to honor achievements of 1957)

The Nigar Awards (Urdu: نگار ایوارڈز‎) are the official awards of Pakistani film industry and are the oldest awards to honour the show business personalities of Pakistan per the declared policy of weekly Nigar magazine, with a purpose to recognize the achievements of those who worked in the film industry. The first award distribution ceremony was held on 17 July 1958 at Lahore's Evernew Studio. Since then, the awards were presented annually until 2004. During the 1990s the prominence of awards was eclipsed by the National Awards and later by Lux Style Awards.[1] With the discontinuation of film making in Pakistan, the distribution of Nigar Awards is also discontinued.

History of Nigar Awards

Ilyas Rashidi had acquired experience in the field of entertainment journalism through his association with his elder brother Umer Azad's daily newspaper Anjum, which had just shifted its offices from Delhi to Karachi after the partition of India in 1947 to the newly independent Pakistan. Ilyas Rashidi was inspired by the Indian film magazine 'Filmfare', so he purchased a children's magazine Monthly Nigar from his friend Ibne Hassan Nigar, and published it as Pakistan's first ever film weekly from Karachi.

The first award distribution ceremony was held on 17 July 1958 at Lahore's Evernew Studios. The first Nigar award was given to the best movie Saath Lakh (1957), to the best director W.Z. Ahmed for film Waada (1957), to the best actor Santosh Kumar and to the best actress Sabiha Khanum- all awards were given for work done in 1957.

The male artist who has received the highest number of Nigar awards is Nadeem, who had started his career in Chakori, got his first award for the same movie as the best actor. The female artist who has received the highest number of Nigar awards is Shabnam, who had started her career in Pakistani films in Aey Desh Tomar Amar (1958), got her first award for the film Chanda (1962) as the best supporting actress. Special award was presented to child actress "Baby Jugnu" aka Durdana Zareen, it was her first Nigar Award. The Melody Queen Noor Jahan got a total of 13 Nigar awards in her long career of over 40 years. She got her first Nigar Award for the best playback singer in film Koel (1959).

Award's Design

Initial design of Nigar Awards changed during President General Zia-ul-Haq Islamized rule.

Ilyas Rashidi had initially chosen the design of a lady statuette, but during the Islamic dictatorial rule of President General Zia-ul-Haq and his regime, the statue design was changed into the present textual design.

Arrangements for the awards

Instead of the usual practice of envelope opening, the award committee prints the names of the winners on the back of the invitation cards that are sent to all invitees. This removes the charm of suspenseful moments for the attendees.

Despite all this, the award committee has strict rules of only considering the candidacy of those films and television shows that are nominated for the awards and their copies are provided by the film- makers or distributors to the Awards Committee of Nigar Awards.

The Nigar Awards are also known for their impartial assessment and unbiased attitude as compared with other high-level awards in Pakistan for the public entertainment media. Another prominent factor of the awards is that, over time, various categories from both television and film industry that have been included to cover such subjets as Urdu, Punjabi and Pushto language films.

Award Categories

The Nigar awards are divided in four sections, i.e., Urdu, Punjabi, Pushto and Sindhi film awards. Each section has several categories, such as:

Revival of award-giving in 2012

According to chief organizer Aslam Ilyas, son of Ilyas Rashdi, the Nigar Publications is planning to return after a gap of seven years. Around 40 awards will be given in 2012, 20 of which in television's category and 20 in film's category.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Nigar Pakistani Film Awards, Retrieved 30 October 2015
  2. ↑ , The Return of Nigar Awards in 2012, The Express Tribune newspaper (12 January 2012 issue), Retrieved 30 October 2015
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