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on 2008/6/6 23:48:41
Scores of stars are to light up Bangkok this weekend as film legend Amitabh Bachchan presides over IIFA celebrations, which kick off on Friday with the premiere of Sarkar Raj.
The veteran of Indian cinema will host the awards ceremony for the International Indian Film Academy on Sunday, which is expected to draw 600 million television viewers.
At least 500 Bollywood celebrities -- including Akshay Kumar , Kareena Kapoor , Katrina Kaif and Govinda -- have gathered for a glitzy weekend here to promote their unique brand of film-making abroad.
"The IIFA weekend is an occasion of truly epic proportions that takes the spirit of Indian cinema to every corner of the globe and embraces cultures from every continent," Bachchan said.
"In today's world where there are so many differences and hatreds, cinema is the one entity that brings all of us together," he told reporters as the festival opened.
The spotlight falls first on Bachchan's own family, a powerhouse acting dynasty who have the lead roles in Sarkar Raj, premiering Friday night.
Bachchan stars with son Abhishek and daughter-in-law, former Miss World Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, in the movie, loosely based on the controversy around Bal Thackeray.
The young couple, who recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, are up for Best Male and Best Female awards at Sunday night's ceremony for their performances in Guru.
Launched in London eight years ago, the IIFA awards have been held across the world, including in Amsterdam and South Africa's Sun City.
Organisers have brought the event to Bangkok to expand Indian cinema's popularity in Thailand, where audiences prefer movies from the United States or the growing local film industry. Indian film has an enormous audience at home, and the industry was valued at $2.2 billion last year.
But IIFA is trying to spread Bollywood's popularity around the world. After the first IIFA awards in London, Hindi cinema ticket sales grew 35 per cent in Britain over the following six months, according to organisers.
The recent Hollywood-funded Bollywood film Beloved attracted huge audiences, while the traditional song-and-dance format is adapting to appeal to Western audiences, as with the sci-fi flick Love Story 2050 to be previewed this weekend.
The festival gives a heavy nod to the business side of filmmaking, with a Global Business Forum on Friday that seeks to build Thai-Indian relations across industries from movies to pharmaceuticals.
But most of the spotlight will fall on the array of stars in Bangkok, with dance performances by celebrities and a charity fashion show featuring high-profile Indian designers and presented by Bollywood actors.
All that leads up to the awards ceremony, which will hand out 13 honours, culminating with the Best Picture award that could go to Guru, Chak De India, Jab We Met, Om Shanti Om , Life in a Metro or Partner.
The event has an environmental theme this year, with a special award presented Friday to honour Nobel Peace Prize winner and climate change scientist Rajendra Pachauri. Instead of a red carpet, celebrities will pose for the cameras on a green one.
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