The Technical Awards Nite at the Big ITA

The countdown of the much awaited Indian Television Academy (ITA) has began with the technical awards being given on Saturday. The popular awards will be given on 9 th December.

Noodle strap, Mandira Bedi was the host of the eveining along with Sharad Kelkar and Smriti Iraani. The later's SET show Viruddh , got the best dialogue award.

The most important moment of the night was superstar Mr. Amitabh Bachchan receiving Ultimate Eminence award in the world of Entertainment, encompassing Cinema, Television & Media…! Child artist Swini Khara (Cheeni Kum) & Raj Pandit (singer / composer) performed on Sa Ra Zamaana, Anthony Gonsalves, Jhuma Chumma, Don as a tribute to the Big B as well.

Other personalities to be honoured include broadcasters like Mr. Aroon Purie (Aaj Tak), Dr. Prannoy Roy (NDTV), Mr. Rajat Sharma (INDIA TV), Mr. Ronnie Screwvala (UTV), Sahara Shri Subrata Roy (Sahara TV), Content-providers including Mr. Dheeraj Kumar (Creative Eye), Mr. Prem Sagar (Sagar Arts), Mr. Ravi Chopra (B R TV), Mr. Sanjay Khan (Numero Uno International Limited).

In a very good move, south film legend Khushboo too was rewarded for having achieved iconic status in Southern Television

Indraneil performed a Chinese music piece while his Nach Balliye partner, Barkha Bisht danced to Yeh Ishq Hai - Jab we Met, while Shama Sikandar, Sameer Dattani, Shaad Randhawa, Aarti Chhabria impressed every one with thier Dhoom Dhadka act.

One event that got maximum applause was the Baa & Bahu act - where older genearation heroine performed to their time hit number and the same were remixed by current babes. So we had Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon by Shubha Khote and its Remix version by Amrapali, Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar by Savita Prabhune and it remix version by Jasweer Kaur, Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar by Shama Deshpande, remixed by Karishma Tanna.

MTV bagged the best music channel, while Zee Cinema got the best Hindi movie channel. Disney channel was adjudged as the best children channel.

The celeb who graced the event were Ramesh Sippy, Madhur Bhandarkar, Preety Jhangiani, David Dhavan, Gulshan Grover, Mumtaaz, and Amirta Rao, notable absentees who had promised to turn up, but did not appear were Shabana Azmi, Hrithik Roshan and Mahesh Bhatt.

The tv industry glam brigade was in full strength, Aparna Tilak, , Munisha Khatwani, Kamya Punjabi, Keerti Kelkar. Among the guys we saw Arjun Bijlani, Vikas Mankatla, Ashish Roy. Also present were Jaya Bhattachyra and Apara Mehta.

Both the techincal and popular awards will be telecasted on 31st December on Star Plus.