8th Lux Style Awards In Lahore Cancelled!!!

Pakistan's Only International Acclaimed Event - Lux Style Awards - Was Expected To Celebrate This Year In Lahore, Pakistan.But Now The Event Has Been Cancelled Due To Some Reasons.The Artists Were Ready And Waiting To Participate In This Mega Event Of Pakistan But Due To The Worse Political Situation And Hiking Prices Of Basic Necessities The Organizers Decided To Cancel This Event. According To The Organizers,They Have Informed All The Artists About The Cancellation Of This Event And They Can't Organize It In A Situation Where People Are Running After Food.

Artists Which Were Preaparing To Perform In The Award Ceremony Are As Follows:
Shaan,Reema, Meera,Iman Ali , Atif Aslam, Annie , Strings , Ali Azmat & Others.

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LSA 2008 cancelled for now due to security situation

Another event bites the dust thanks to the security situation… leaving those who are cribbing without a ceremony to boycott!

Muniba Kamal, Karachi

So the Lux Style Awards have been cancelled now. The notice was circulated by Unilever recently that: "Following last year's highly acclaimed event in Malaysia, the intention was to hold the 7th Lux Style Awards in a befitting manner this August in Lahore. Regretfully however, it is not appropriate to proceed with this when millions of Pakistanis are confronted with unprecedented inflation and the country is faced with tough economic and security conditions."

It's a sad announcement. One of the biggest nights in fashion has come to naught. Just like Karafilm last year and the Carnival De Couture. The security situation in the country has made us all go into terminal depression and the very things that make Pakistan colourful and vibrant stand cancelled. There is a lot to be said for nights that everybody looks forward to and goes to, to honour and to be honoured. There is something special about those evenings, the anticipation of who will win and who will perform. And the LSAs have been resurrecting icons. Who can forget Runa Laila's fantastic performance two years ago, or that of Naheed Akhtar last year? To think that this year won't throw anything our way, there will be no moments of magic that are recreated, no legends will be honoured. Khuda Kay Liye won't get its night of glory, even though the film came and created history last year. It's been honoured in Egypt, but it won't be right here in Pakistan.

No Lux Style Awards for Lahore

This year would have been historical for both the Lux Style Awards and Lahore. The biggest show in Pakistan held in the country's most historical city would have been a sight to behold. I for one was quite thrilled when the LSAs announced that instead of flying out to Bangkok, the show would be held in Lahore. There is a vibe to the Lux Style Awards being in Pakistan that isn't there when they fly out the show internationally. More people turn up and there is more of a buzz here. It would have been so interesting to see the LSAs in Lahore, especially after the controversies that raged around them all year. After all, despite one hearing the refrain that Lahore has been sidelined this year from the fashion community, most nominations in the fashion categories are from Lahore. As indeed they are in the music category too.

­Of cribbers and sore losers

And yet, one can imagine quite a few people who will be happy with the cancellation of the awards. They are the cribbers and (rather sore) losers. The cribbers are those who have been nominated and yet are finding fault with the awards and the jury. The first is Umar Sayeed who has gone on and on about how the jury is unfair because he as been nominated and his friends haven't. There is Shamoon Sultan who is upset that Khaadi Khaas didn't get nominated even though Khaadi has and there is Deepak Perwani, who though he got nominated for Best Menswear Designer is upset that he wasn't a nominee in the Best Pret category for his women's wear.

One has always wondered at the logic these fashion designers follow. All three designers have historically been a part of the Lux Style Awards and all three of them have taken awards home. To cast aspersions on an awards show of which many trophies sit on their mantel pieces at home is ridiculous. It's a very simple decision to make. You decide either be a part of the process or decide not be a part of it at all. And more worrying is the attitude of designers who insist that they deserve to be nominees. How anyone can claim that “I was the best last year”? How can people think of judging themselves the best no matter which walk of life they are from?

They should look at Aamir Khan across the border who took on all the award shows in Bollywood. He made a statement against the awards and has since then, stuck to his guns. He doesn't attend Bollywood award shows, even if they are honouring him. After that initial statement, there has been no rancour from his side. He simply doesn't bother with them, all the while making films like Lagaan and Taare Zameen Par that are so good that they end up being nominated. While his cast and crew go to these shows and accept their awards, Aamir never does. He refuses to acknowledge them and therein lies the seriousness of the stand he's chosen to take… the man means business. He isn't jumping on the horse when he's winning the race and off because he is losing.

Meanwhile, here, the legions of designers complaining about the platform, jumping on the platform when it suits them and jumping right off when it doesn't is puerile. While Aamir Khan takes a stand on a matter of principle, our designers seem to be whining about not being nominated, and those who are nominated are complaining about the fact that their friends weren't. It's a sorry state of affairs… fashion politics in Pakistan seems to be as sad as our politics.

Fashionable boycott

A popular theory that is going around after the LSAs were cancelled is that they have been shelved for the moment because the people were planning on boycotting them. The camps who found themselves left out in the cold weren't planning on attending the ceremony. These include some big names from the design world. Contrary to popular belief, one doesn't think that a couple of designers missing from the awards would harm the show at all. Let's face it, fashion designers are only icons for the elite in this country if that. It is performances by the likes of Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar make the awards show. Let's face it, the stand up comedy by Rauf Lala and Veena Malik last year went down much better for the mass audience than the fashion segments. Fashion has historically been the weakest link in any Lux Style Awards ceremony. Honouring the nominees is fine, but showing collections up on stage doesn't really cut it. Fashion's impact is on the catwalk or the red carpet. On a stage as big as that of the LSAs, fashion gets diluted.

The show must go on

The heartening part about the LSA cancellation announcement is the statement that Unilever has "every intention of honouring the nominees and going ahead with the LSA scholarship scheme that we started this year."

This is precisely what should be done. The ceremony should be scaled down, but it should happen. After all, the Oscars did go ahead after 9/11. The ceremony was toned down, there were few musical performances and everyone wore black, but the show did go on. Similarly, India has faced trying times like frequent bomb blasts but that hasn't resulted in the cancellation of Filmfare Awards in recent memory. The show goes on and more importantly, for a platform to become an institution, continuity is important.

Here's hoping that the Lux Style Awards do happen even if it is a closed door ceremony. It needs to happen for the record and for posterity. And since LSA is a made for TV show, the organisers don't need to worry about those who chose to boycott the ceremony. The great thing about the camera is that its lens only captures who is there. Those who are not there simply won't matter in the greater scheme of things.

link: The News International - No. 1 English Newspaper from Pakistan - Saturday, December 30, 1899