“It is expected to draw hundreds of India’s leading actors, actresses and filmmakers”, according to South Korea’s leading daily JoongAng Ilbo’s English edition JoongAng Daily.

Starting with London (United Kingdom) in 2000, these annual Awards events have been held in South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, People’s Republic of China and are announced to be held in Canada (Toronto) in June 2011 . IIFA Awards are said to recognize, honor and celebrate the achievements of India’s film industry. It claims to attract a worldwide television audience of over 350 million.

Welcoming Seoul’s move to host Awards events, acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was time now for American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize India’s contribution to world cinema and introduce a new award category of “Best Bollywood Film” in Oscars for films made in India. This gesture would bring more credibility to Oscars also in the international arena, as it was long overdue, Rajan Zed, who is chairperson of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, added.

Seoul has been described by Lonely Planet as a “fashion-filled” city that “vibrates with energy night and day” and South Korea as “a country of endless possibilities”. Bollywood is said to be producing about double the number of movies than Hollywood and about four billion cinema tickets are sold annually in India.

Mumbai based IIFA endeavors to promote Indian cinema and showcase its talent globally. Its founder-directors are Andre Timmins, Viraf Sarkari, and Sabbas Joseph. Its Advisory Board boasts of big Bollywood names: Amitabh Bachchan (Brand Ambassador), David Dhawan, J.P. Dutta, Jaya Bachchan, Karan Johar, Manmohan Shetty, Pahlaj Nihalani, Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Shroff, and Vinod Khanna.
~ANI