Bollywood in Macau

Bollywood Oscars: Priyanka Chopra has been nominated for the best actor award

CINEMA
IIFA all set to celebrate its 10th year, showcases A-list talent
By Bidisha Ghosal/macau
It's that time of the year again, when the biggest and the best from Bollywood will cross the borders to perform, give away and receive awards. Macau is the venue for the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards to be held in the June 11-13 weekend. Despite coming late in the year after Filmfare and Stardust awards, IIFA is looked forward to mainly because it is just the votes that matter here.
Founded by Wizcraft International Entertainment, IIFA neatly sidesteps potential accusations of foul play and partiality thanks to a transparent tie-up with the audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

While most are unaware that IIFA's technical awards are over and done with, they are still waiting to see if Hrithik Roshan will score another award for his performance in Jodhaa Akbar as Shah Rukh Khan has always been the king of the popularity stakes. While Abhishek Bachchan has been nominated in three categories, two for the same role in Dostana, his better half, Aishwarya Rai, probably has her fingers crossed for a win over Priyanka Chopra this time. But one guess is only as good as the other.
"No one can even tentatively grasp, much less predict IIFA winners, but due to my observations over the last ten years, IIFA is steadily overtaking the older awards institutions in terms of credibility and showmanship," says Taran Adarsh, trade analyst. "The process of selecting the winners is not as transparent in a ceremony like, say the Filmfare Awards, as it is in the case of IIFA."

Where showmanship is concerned, IIFA certainly knows how to do it best. An international face like Rai's, musical genius like that of A.R. Rahman's and the dogged refusal to give up on songs-for-every-occasion have taken Bollywood to almost every part of the globe; Wizcraft has systematically created an organised platform for Hindi movies to be lauded globally. To celebrate its tenth year, IIFA is befittingly headed to the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. "The Venetian has always been a weekend destination so it is rather appropriate that the IIFA weekend takes place there," says Stephen Weaver, president of the Asia Pacific region of Las Vegas Sands Corp, the parent body of the hotel. "Considering that IIFA is known to expand tourist interest in the host country, we are expecting at least twice as many tourists in Macau after the event and, hopefully, many of them will want to stay with us."

Designed like the city of Venice, the hotel has only suites to offer and a stream of gondolas to saunter past as you shop. You can even float along in a gondola as your guide sings for you, but at a price. The Cotai Arena, which is the venue for the event, can house up to 6,000 guests, although, according to Weaver, "half of it will be taken up by a stage extension". For brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the year should hold a special place in his heart as it is his 40th year in the industry as well. But he still has to defend IIFA's position when it comes to accusations that it showcases only Hindi films and does not go pan-Indian. "Is Hindi cinema not Indian cinema?" he counter-questions. "We are looking at showcasing films from a variety of regions of the country and that might expand into a full-fledged pan-Indian film festival. In the past we have awarded south Indian and Marathi talents and this small step can only go further with the passage of time."

It is certainly Bollywood that is putting the country's glamorous face forward with its penchant for the glitter and gloss that regional cinema often lacks. Of course, it helps that every sixth person in the world is an Indian who loves to get online and vote for his country in whichever way necessary.