The Indian Telly Awards were envisioned as a way to reward professionals behind the scenes of the Indian television business in 2001 by Indian Television Dot Com Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based television services company.

At that time, the Indian television industry really had no awards dedicated to recognising the skills and talents in the business, be it behind the scenes or on camera. Other television awards were a sub-component of a main film awards function where the focus was really on Bollywood. And again, here it is only the face of television - the artistes - who got recognition and rewarded.

Recognising this, The Indian Telly Awards 2001 were instituted with support from the four main Hindi entertainment television channels and producers. They were held at the Oberoi Hotel on 6 July 2001 and the TV show followed on 9 September 2001 on Star Plus. They were a huge success.

The response from industry this year has enthused us at Indian Television Dot Com Pvt Ltd to expand the number of categories from 18 last year to 47 in the second edition of The Indian Telly Awards. The awards have moved from being primarily trade focused to include even popular categories to recognize the talents of people on screen and associated with the process of production too - eg. Best TV Scriptwriter, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Music Director, Best Director.. This is something industry had been asking for. However, we have not lost our vision: Celebrate and recognising excellence, Celebrating the best of television today.

For easy referencing, we have split up the awards into the following groups -

TRADE AWARDS (THE EXECUTIVE AWARDS) comprising 11 sub-categories

TECHNICAL AWARDS comprising 6 sub-categories

POPULAR AWARDS comprising 3 major subdivisions

• The CHANNEL AWARDS - 3 sub-categories

• The PROGRAMMING AWARDS - 12 sub-categories

• The PERSONALITY AWARDS - 14 sub-categories

• One Lifetime Achievement Award

The Indian Telly Awards 2002 cover the period from January 2001 to December 2001 and nominations are being called for from television channels, production houses, and artistes.

A key difference from other awards of its ilk is that they have been instituted by indiantelevision.com, known for its unbiased stance on issues relevant to the business of television.