Singapore: More than 100 film stars from South Indian film industries will participate in an annual award show to be hosted in Singapore on June 30 and July 1.

The South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA) will recognise stars and technicians of Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam film industries, organisers said.

“SIIMA 2016 would witness over 100 leading stars from South India and 12 performances over two days,” said Brinda Prasad, chairperson of SIIMA. This is 5 edition of SIIMA, the last of which was held in Dubai last year. The South Asian movies have a huge following in Singapore, especially as Tamil is one of the four official languages of the city state. “We are looking at sold out shows on each of the two days at the 6,000-seat convention centre here,” Prasad told PTI. Indian film screenings began in Singapore in the 1940s, according to Uma Rajan, a Singapore Indian cultural icon, recalling early days of Indian film screenings in Singapore. “There was craving for Indian movies. The influence of the cinema has been tremendous on Indians in Singapore,” said Rajan. “Indian dance and music in Singapore has stayed very much alive especially because of cinemas. The influence of cinemas has been tremendous. There was craving for Indian movies,” Rajan added. — PTI