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The King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, is coming to Toronto for the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards later this month.

The 45-year-old actor, producer and TV host headlines a who’s-who of Indian cinema slated for the 12th annual awards being staged for the first time in North America.

Other A-list attendees include IIFA ambassadors Anil Kapoor and Preity Zinta, who were here for the event announcement in January, and leading man Saif Ali Khan, who will also host the IIFA Rocks fashion show at Ricoh Coliseum on June 24.

Shah Rukh Khan is up for Best Performance in a Leading Role (Male) for the top hit My Name is Khan, which is nominated in seven categories, including Best Film and Best Screenplay.

Based on a true story, My Name Is Khan is about the racial profiling of Muslims after 9/11. Khan stars as an autistic Muslim man who sets out on a journey across America, on a mission to meet the country's president and clear his name.

During a promotional visit to the U.S. for the film in 2009, Khan, Bollywood’s highest-paid star, complained that he was detained by Newark airport immigration officials because his name came up on a terrorist watch list.

My Name Is Khan is reportedly the highest-grossing Indian film of all time in the overseas market, but will have stiff competition at the June 25 Rogers Centre awards gala where Once Upon a Time in Mumbai and Dabangg lead the field with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively.

Other confirmed IIFA nominees, include, actors Ranbir Kapoor, who is up for Best Performance in a Leading Role (Raajneeti), and Arshad Warsi, who is vying for Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Ishqiya).

Actor Ritesh Deshmukh, who is nominated for Performance in a Comic Role (Houseful), will reprise his role as co-host of the awards with Boman Irani. He will also walk the environmentally friendly green carpet at the world premiere of Double Dhamal at Silvercity Brampton on June 23, with co-stars Kangana Ranaut, Mallika Sherawat and Arshad Warsi.

Other confirmed IIFA attendees include Fardeen Kahn, Malaika Arora Khan, Esha Deol, Dia Mirza, Arbaaz Khan, Neha Dhupia, Boman Irani, Rishi Kapoor, Zayed Khan, Madhavan, Ranveer Singh, Zeenat Aman, Neetu Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor, Hema Malini, Sharmila Tagore and Shatrrughan Sinha.

Performers at the sold-out awards include Bobby and Sunny Deol performing live for the first time with their father Dharmendra, and Priyanka Chopra.

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Why Bollywood's IIFA Awards are Headed to Toronto
by Etan Vlessing

Bollywood has seen what the Toronto International Film Festival has done for Hollywood as an Oscar launch pad, and wants Canada's biggest city to similarly showcase the IIFA Awards, it's annual celebration of Indian cinema.

TORONTO -- Canadian TV presenter Mohit Rajhans points to the moment Bollywood fell for Toronto, enough to give Canada’s biggest city the IIFA Awards, the Indian film industry’s Oscars, to host in June.

It was the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar was working the red carpet outside Roy Thomson Hall just before a gala screening for his action-comedy Singh Is Kinng as part of Toronto’s Mumbai Matinee sidebar.

The night before, fans and paparazzi got trampled outside Roy Thomson Hall by Brad Pitt worshippers attending a festival gala for Ethan Coen and Joel Coen's Burn After Reading.

But Rajhans remembers an even stronger red carpet frenzy by Akshay Kumar fans the following day as they surged beyond the barricades, cel phone cameras in hand, for a brush with Indian film royalty.
β€œIt was a mob mentality, and I was just a little scared,” he recounted.

But executives from the International Indian Film Academy on hand in Toronto were more sanguine about the red carpet melee.

Roy Thomson Hall, already an Oscar launch-pad for Hollywood studio pics each September at the Toronto International Film Festival, had suddenly become fan central for hard core Bollywood fans.

β€œThey wouldn’t come to Toronto if they didn’t expect fans to blow the lid off of the Rogers Centre,” the venue of the 12th IIFA Awards, insists Veronica Chail, the Toronto-based host of OMNI Television's national entertainment magazine show Bollywood Boulevard.

The IIFAs are produced annually by Wizcraft International Entertainment outside India and in rising markets for Bollywood product.

And OMNI Television, as the official Canadian broadcast partner of the 2011 IIFA Awards, plans wall-to-wall coverage of the Indian film awards to reach and grow its Canadian south-Asian audience.

β€œWhen it comes to Bollywood, you’re not selling anything. You’re not trying to convince anyone. The audience has a core interest,” Alain Strati, vp of the OMNI Station Group, explained.

To celebrate Bollywood ahead of the green carpet style watch at the IIFA Awards in Toronto, OMNI is launching a Best of the IIFAs series, co-hosted by Veronica Chail and Mohit Rajhans.

Chail explains the four-part series showcasing Bollywood’s leading men and women and greatest IIFA Award dance numbers will also showcase how Toronto embraces diversity and Bollywood.

β€œThe world lives here,” she said of Toronto’s varied multicultural communities, which each September soak up TIFF’s international film lineup.

What’s more, the Indian film industry sees Toronto as a gateway into the North American market, on the strength of buzz generated by local Bollywood fans.

β€œThis is for the fans. They’re loyal and excited. And it will be three days of parties that will show how global Bollywood is,” Chail insists.

OMNI plans IIFA-themed Bollywood movie screenings on its TV stations, weekly IIFA Awards coverage on Bollywood Boulevard, and a new entertainment series Bollywood Top 10 Best to showcase the best in Indian cinema.

That coverage will come on top of daily south Asian news reporting on OMNI stations in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

There’s also online coverage of the IIFAs, including an OMNI Television website dedicated to fans of Indian cinema.

And OMNI will use varied social media to keep its audience up-to-date on IIFA news leading up to the green carpet pre-show and Rogers Centre awards show.

The 12th IIFA Awards are set to take place in Toronto from June 23 to 25.

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FM
quote:
Originally posted by Villagebelle:
any GNIers scored tickets for the IIFA??

man....i really wnated to go....
but the tickets sold out the first day

and now the ones on sale are way too costly for me. i don't want to go that bad!


My sister got tickets through her work place and I was supposed to go but I can't now, so she has to resell the two tickets. She and a bunch of friends are going though, hope she gets lots of pictures.
FM

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