MUMBAI: The 34th Rapa (The Radio and TV Advertising Practitioners Association of India Ltd) are likely to be held in two months, according to the Rapa managing committee.

Rapa vice president Alaric Ferns confirmed the development, saying, We haven't yet zeroed down on the exact date but this year the Rapa awards, which have been delayed for some months, would be held in August....

The Rapa, which has been awarding excellence in television and radio industry for the past 33 years, has been operating without its own premises for long. We recently bought our own premises this year in Mahim and it is one of the reasons for the delay in hosting the awards this year. We had to spend some time in getting the setup at our new location and that delayed the whole process,... says Ferns.

Some new categories are being added to the event this year, over the existing 63. Some of the categories added include nominations for corporate social responsibility, women's empowerment, public service, documentary by students across radio and television. Also, nominations which were duplicated across categories, have been clubbed into a single nomination,... he says. The last date for submission of nominations has been tentatively being fixed for 8 August.

Commenting on the evolution of Rapa awards over the years, Ferns says, Year after year, the awards are becoming more professional, compliant with the changing trends in the industry. The nomination processess have evolved with change in times and have been replaced by more relevant ones year after year. We anticipate more participation from both the industries this year as over a period of time, Rapa has become a benchmark to gauge creativity in radio and television industry.... Last year, RAPA which was an unregistered body till then, registered under the Charitable Societies Act.

However, sources close to the association suggest misappropriation of funds and a subsequent split in the ranks of the organisation that caused the delay in the event this year. Radio veteran and Rapa chairman emeritus Ameen Sayani, when contacted, denied to comment on the issue.

When Radioandmusic.com contacted Rapa president Viresh Chaddha, he confirmed the awards would be held in two months time, but didn't confirm the details. A meeting of Rapa committee members is supposed to be held on 9 June to finalise the date and specifications of the 34th Rapa awards.

The awards categories include nine awards in the radio category in each language, and six more for all languages combined. There are two awards in the Television advertising category in each language and nine awards in all languages combined. There are 11 awards in the Television Production category (serials/ music videos/ telefilms, documentaries, etc.) in each language and 18 awards in all languages combined. There are seven special Rapa awards for all round contribution to Radio/Television; outstanding voice performance; best performance on TV for male and female; campaign of the year on TV and on radio; and outstanding copywriter.

Any person or organization creativity involved with the production of work being sent in as entry for Radio / Television in the categories mentioned in the folder. One can participate if one has produced work in any of the following 17 Indian languages including Assamese, Bangla, Dogri, English, Gujrati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu. In case of bilingual work, one must specify the primary language. If a spot has English and Hindi in it, then to consider it in English it should have more than 70 per cent of English content.

Rapa came into existence over 32 years ago on 4 November, 1974, when creative professionals in the radio and advertising fields got together to represent the industry.