The Screen Awards is an annual awards ceremony held in India honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection is done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced by the Screen film magazine of The Indian Express Group in 1995. The magazine was acquired by Star India in 2015 and subsequently closed down. Though Star India continues to sponsor the awards under the Star Screen Awards title. The name of the annual ceremonies are prefixed by the presenting network; the first "Star Screen Awards" were telecasted on Star Plus from 2000 till 2011, after which the "Colors Screen Awards" were previewed on Colors and the "Life OK Screen Awards" on Life OK, each for a period of two years. As of 2019, Star continues to hold the television distribution rights.
History
The Screen Awards, initiated by the chairman of The Express Group, Mr. Viveck Goenka in 1994, is focused on excellence in films in India. The awards attempt to position themselves as India's first awards that are given by the film fraternity to the film fraternity by way of a jury, as opposed to the other "popular" awards. The awards are also the first to be conducted every year. The Awards for Hindi and Marathi films, TV and non-film music are presented annually in January each year. Several editions of the awards such as the "Screen Weekly Awards", "Screen Videocon Awards", "Star Screen Awards", "Colors Screen Awards" and "Life OK Screen Awards" have thus far been presented. Until 2001, the awards were sponsored by Videocon International and hence known as the Screen Videocon Awards. For the regional cinema of South India, Screen has held three editions of the "Screen Awards for excellence in South Indian Cinema". The awards were presented for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema. The ceremony has involved the Executive Director and the Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The 23rd Star Screen Awards was held on 4 December 2016 and broadcast on Star Plus on 31 December 2016. The event was created and designed by Anil Jha and produced and executed by Mohomed Morani and CineyugGroup of Companies.
