Little ‘princess’ wins big at ATV 2014

Asia

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s very own Puteri Balqis Azizi has been named best Asian Female Actress at the Asian Television Awards 2014 (ATV 2014).

In a glittering event held at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands on Thursday night, the seven-year-old darling of the screen was crowned queen above her much more experienced peers.

Puteri Balqis won over the judges, who chose her over five other nominees – the seasoned Joan Chen, Rui En (Singapore), Tien Hsin Taiwan), Kristal Tin (Hong Kong) and Ko Su Chin (Taiwan).

Puteri Balqis, who ventured into the film industry at the tender age of four, clinched the award for her role in a telefilm named after her “Balqis”.

Directed by Erma Fatima, the series that was aired over TV3 was itself nominated for Best Drama/Telefilm at ATV 2014.

Puteri Balqis, fondly known as Aqish here, had earlier on won the Best Actress award at Malaysia’s Anugerah Skrin 2014 on Nov 7.

The Asian Television Awards is a prestigious event that attracted 1,371 nominations from 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region, vying for 38 awards.

Singaporean actor Pierre Png was named the Best Male Actor for his role
in “Zero Calling”.

The Best Female Supporting Actress went to Hsieh Ching Hsuan of Taiwan for her role in “Lonely River”, while the best drama series award went to Naoki Hanzawa.

In her acceptance speech in English which tickled the audience, Puteri Balqis started off by saying “this is unbelievable”, a statement that got the audience cooing and smiling non-stop from that point onwards.

“I am Balqis. This is for my country Malaysia,” she ended as the entire hall
erupted in applause and cheers.