Soundarya Rajnikanth has joined hands with Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi's Globosport to start annual film awards to honour South Indian artistes.

"The South Indian film industry is not only an exciting prospect but has amazingly talented artistes and technicians who have been achieving a lot without making much noise. While it is important to retain achievers in their respective fields, it is also of paramount importance to spot and identify new talents in those fields," said Soundarya.

"Keeping this in mind, I have decided to give away awards for excellence every year in various fields in the film industry. I'll do it in association with tennis champion Mahesh Bhupathi. I'm very happy to have aligned with Mahesh," she added.

Soundarya is the younger daughter of superstar Rajnikanth and runs Ocher Studios that produced the animation film Sultan: The Warrior.