Yawn-inducing1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBollywood awards functions have become exercises in predictability-and, thanks to the hoopla, nobody really cares about talent being rewarded
It can’t exactly boast of a “˜wow’ factor. Its USP, if any, is that it has been hosted outside India, at venues like London, Dubai, Amsterdam, Singapore and Macau. The idea is to jet-rush dozens of celebrities – with their families and acolytes – to foreign shores where there is a sizeable population of Bollywood-addicted Non-Resident Indians.
An award function is set up at the largest possible auditorium in town. The trophy distribution ceremony follows peppered with the mandatory song-and-dance interludes. It is claimed that the show is sold out six to seven months in advance. Subsequently, the event is broadcast on global television. And practically everyone involved returns home, smiling, either with award trophies or with fat fees paid for stage performances. Or in quite a few cases, both.
That’s the International Indian Film Festival Academy (IIFA) Awards. IIFA is the last award ceremony of the year, after all the print media as well as satellite television channels have done their number. A sense of fatigue sets in by June. Never mind. After all, the 12th edition of the year’s last-but-not-the-least (touchwood) IIFA award hoopla is on from June 23-25 in Toronto, if you please
