IIFA Awards to be held in Florida

For the first time ever Bollywood will head to United States to celebrate yet another glorious year in Indian cinema.

NEW YORK: The 15th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, dubbed as the Oscars of the nearly $7.8 billion Bollywood industry, will be presented in the United States for the first time this year, organisers of the event said on Wednesday.

Bollywood’s biggest stars are expected to attend the weekend event in Tampa Bay, Florida, from April 24 till 26 when the top prizes will be handed out. Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan will headline the show.

Andre Timmins, the Director of IIFA and Wizcraft International Entertainment, said producing the show in the United States was a natural fit. “For Bollywood today, while we produce 1,300 films a year and sell 3.6 billion tickets, the important thing is that after India, America is the second largest market for Indian films,” he said in an interview. “We have always wanted to come here.”

Previous IIFA awards have been held in Canada, Singapore, Dubai and Britain. Barfi, a romantic comedy, won the top honours at last year’s awards, when Bollywood celebrated its centenary in the Chinese gambling haven of Macau.

B-town heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor took home the Best Actor award for Barfi last year, which also won Best Film, and Vidya Balan nabbed the best actress prize for her role in the thriller Kahaani.

“A lot of Indian films are being shot in America. In the last ten years, more than 52 movies have been shot here, and close to about $150 million has been spent,” said Timmins. The Tampa event could generate $30 million, he added.

Bollywood bombshell Priyanka Chopra, who will be performing at the awards show, said the boisterous, catchy songs, vigorous dance numbers and feel-good themes of Indian films reflect the country’s culture. “Music, dancing, colours and emotions — it makes you feel passionate and alive and that’s what the magic of the movies is,” she shared at a press conference.

“America has a huge, huge, huge fan base for Indian movies,” she said. “I hope we do a lot more IIFAs in America because it is our way of going to the fans. They don’t have to come to us,” Chopra said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2014.

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