BEHINDWOODS GOLD SUMMIT

June 15 must have been a normal lazy Sunday for most, with a late wake-up, a sumptuous family brunch and routine TV viewing. But for us at Behindwoods it was one of the most exciting days of our ten years journey as we hosted our first awards function, an event with difference.

Behindwoods Gold Summit, an exclusive conclave of the distinguished members of the film fraternity aimed at honouring the best that Tamil cinema had to offer in 2013 and the categories, nominees and the final award winners numbering to 38, were handpicked after much analysis and thought put in by our in-house film experts with wide range of inputs from leading technicians of the industry and public opinion. The summit was also our way of thanking the industry for their continued support to us on the eve of Behindwoods successfully completing ten years.

Unlike other awards, song and dance routines weren’t added as part of our program. A healthy discussion involving some of Tamil cinema's bright young film makers and anchored by a leading industry mind was our idea of 'variety entertainment'. It was all business and we got down to it with minimum fuss and minimum time.

The venue was ITC Grand Chola in the heart of Chennai. A venue which has been celebrated by the city's inhabitants, for its grandeur and its royal ambiance. When you have decided to celebrate the feats of some magnificent talents, it is only fitting that such a grandiose venue is chosen.

Another standout aspect of our show was to handout gold medals to the winners and not the usual mementos and statuettes, that one would generally associate with such award shows. On a lighter note, we raised our show to 'Olympian levels', and filled our award winners with the pride that is generally reserved only to such medal winners.

We wholeheartedly thank legends such as K.Balachander, M.S.Viswanathan, Kamal Haasan, Bharathiraja and A.R.Rahman, industry heavyweights like Suriya, Bala and Dhanush, actors Siva Karthikeyan, Vijay Sethupathi, Santhanam and Kishore, music director Anirudh, Lyricist Na. Muthukumar and Mrs. Ahileshwari Mahendra, wife of late Balu Mahendra for taking time out of their busy schedules to support us in our first award initiative. Special thanks to the beautiful Pooja who came all the way from Sri Lanka for our event. Many seasoned directors like Suseenthiran, Ram, Vishnuvardhan, Rajesh, Poo Sasi, Vetrimaran, the new breed directors like Bharathbala, Balaji Mohan, Karthik Subbaraj, Balaji Tharaneetharan, Naveen, R.S.Prasanna, producers Thanu, Amma Creations Shiva, Disney UTV’s South Head Dhananjayan, Escape artists Madan, J Satish Kumar, CV Kumar, Y Not Sashikanth, Abinesh of Abi & Abi Pictures and Next Big Films Shanmugam, technicians Editor Praveen, Editor Kishore, Cinematographer Madhie, Cinematographer Chezhian and Costume Designer Poornima, Costume Maker Perumal Selvam, Dance choreographer Prasanna, Stunt choreographer Anal arasu, Actor Simhaa, Art directors Lalgudi Ilayaraja and C.S Balachander, Singer Sriram Parthasarathy and many others made their indelible marks on the day with their much-needed attendance.

Months of hard work was involved and our young team delivered on the big stage like experienced pros. All those hours of planning on paper and discussion in our office rooms bore fruit on 15th, when we put up a honorable debut show in the big world of film events. All this would not have been possible without the backing of the experienced industry hands of PRO Riaz Ahmed, PRO Suresh Chandra and the D’One team.

VJ Ramya, who beautifully anchored the event, making sure there isn’t any shortage of grace and elegance.

"An emotional A.R.Rahman getting his first medal from his idol M.S.Viswanathan, Rahman doing the honors for a charged Anirudh, Bharathiraja similarly honoring Dhanush and Sivakarthikeyan and an emotional director Bala getting his first award from Akila amma " ... Stay tuned to Behindwoods.com for all these memorable moments and much more from our event, captured through video footage and photos.

We promise to come back next year, bigger, grander and stronger in every aspect. Until next year, Ciao ...