Saturday, June 9, 2012

And the award goes to...

Each year, the International Indian Film Academy holds its awards ceremony in a different city (duh), to bring Indian cinema to a global audience. IIFA 2011 was a huge deal because it was the first time that the awards were held in North America, with Toronto winning the bid. It does seem a bit odd that Vancouver, L.A., or even New York weren't on the list (given their glitz factor), but having them in Toronto automatically qualified me to be part of the "action", since I was a "correspondent" for a national Bollywood show. 

I'll skip opening my mouth and saying too much about what I felt and thought about the whole schabang, because that would be cruel. But what I will say is that, in theory, the idea of the IIFAs is actually not half bad. Like a travelling circus, people all over have a chance to see the "stars" and get a little bit of Bollywood injected into their city. The weekend has press conferences, movie premieres, a fashion/rock show, as well as the highlight of the weekend, the awards. Last year, Toronto also held a film festival, a Raj Kapoor retrospective, in honour of the late actor/director/producer/writer/film mogul. And of course, let's not forget the economic impact...it's huge! People LOVE the acting elite, no matter what their culture, language, or place of origin, and wherever they go, so to, do the masses. There were tens of thousands of people that came into the city from as far as Australia (I met a couple who flew in just for the show). Hotels, restaurants, transport, and retailers all see the effect...CHA-CHING!

Since the Bachchans bowed out of the celebration (Amitabh was replaced as brand ambassador by the one and only SRK), there was a lot of speculation about whether or not the IIFAs would lose their lustre. And to tell you the truth, they kinda did. Sure, King Khan (as he's called) drew in a HUGE crowd, but somehow, he didn't impress me that much in person...especially after his security guard had the audacity of stepping on the toe of my brand new Hugo Boss shoes that retail for $700...and after he showed up late for the press conference he called about his new production company. He certainly wasn't enough to "sell out" the show, because over half of the Rogers Centre sat empty. The weekend also lacked the star power that it should have brought. Many stars were absent, including about 30-percent of those nominated for an award. Instead, the promoters put all their effort into backing B-rated actors like Diya Mirza, Bipasha Basu, Arbaar Khan and Malaika Arora, Mallika Sherawat, and the elder Kapoors (the Randhir, Rajiv, and Rishi generation)...many who didn't even look like they wanted to be there. 

All in all, the people who put together the show did a great job. It looked great. The sets were great. For the most part, they were fairly cooperative. I just hope this year's IIFA in Singapore has a much better turn out. 


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