Stars spotted in Toronto

Some of Bollywood film industry’s biggest stars reached Toronto on Tuesday to attend this week's International Indian Film Academy Awards and festival. Crowd of fans studded themselves at Pearson airport's international approaching area to welcome bigwigs like Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Sonu Sood and many others.One of the fan present at the airport said that she always followed the IIFA shows. Coming to the IIFA was a huge thing because it happens once in a lifetime. Similar feedback is expected later this week when baadshah Shahrukh Khan will come in town.

Bubbly actress Dia Mirza arrived the town on Tuesday and asserted that she's excited to be a part of this mega event. Actor Zayed Khan said Toronto is the perfect place to organize the event.Mob of crazy fans, cameras set to hit the click button, to catch a gaze of arriving Bollywood celebrities. Having IIFA in Toronto this year helps to feel a special connection to the stars homeland. Banners and billboards promoting the IIFA Awards and festival are pasted around Toronto, with events also taking place in the nearby cities like Mississauga, Brampton and Markham respectively.

The yearly celebration of Indian's gigantic film fraternity is projected to attract almost 40 thousand audiences to the Greater Toronto Area, with more than six hundred million TV viewers globally expected to take in Saturday's awards broadcast single-handedly.So guys, don’t give IIFA a miss this time. It’s gonna rock!!
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IIFA Awards to be held in Toronto

The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards are set to be organized in Toronto from June 16 till June19, 2011. Bollywood celebrities Vivek Oberoi and Celina Jaitely, announced about the event in the presence of Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty.


McGuinty however mentioned that to win this opportunity to host the 2011 IIFA awards, one has to know that Bollywood is in Ontario, especially Toronto. He also told the stars here that Toronto city is the city of five billion people; 52 percent or half of the people living here were born outside the country. And a big component of that comes from the Asian community, particularly from India. So this is gonna be exciting to have a gathering here. It was also stated that the IIFA awards should attract about 40 thousand visitors to the city and another 350 million audiences to television screens worldwide.

South Asians make up the largest perceptible minority in Toronto, with about 300,000, 12 per cent of the whole city’s population. Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley in an interview that Canada is a big support for Bollywood as there is huge fan following there. She further added that she is pretty sure that this time IIFA will be really big because a large number of fans are from Canada itself. IIFA ceremonies have been earlier hosted by Dubai, Amsterdam, Johannesburg and Bangkok. This time too it’ll be a great evening with stars twinkling all around!!!!

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Toronto to host IIFA Awards in 2011

In December 2009 it was announced that members of the Indian Film Fraternity and the IIFA Advisory Board, Canada will be hosting the 2011 International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA). The IIFA Weekend and IDEA IIFA Awards ceremony will be held in the Greater Toronto Area from 16th -19th June 2011.

Joined by key members of the Indian Film Industry, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty also thanked IIFA for the honour of hosting the IIFA Weekend and Awards 2011 in Toronto. Toronto is an ideal choice for IIFA 2011 as it is considered as the global city which is very well known for it's culture and entertainment scene.

The announcement came at a green carpet celebration of cultural ties that bind nearly 600 thousand Ontarians to India. The IIFA Weekend will also cap a four-day celebration of Indian Cinema, including a Film Festival, various film briefings, a world-wide film premiere, a trade and business Forum, an IIFA Foundation event and escalate into the night of nights, the IDEA IIFA Awards.

The organizers have said that the decision for the 2010 edition will be announced soon. The first IIFA Awards were held at the Millennium Dome in London in 2000 and have gone on to various cities like Sun City, Dubai, Amsterdam, Singapore, Yorkshire amongst others, with the most recent being celebrated n Macau.

The IIFA Weekend is expected to witness over 500 people from the Indian film industry and about 40 thousand visitors to Toronto, with an international television audience of more than 350 million.

The IIFA Awards 2009 - "Coming Soon"

On its journey of celebrating Indian Cinema across the world, IIFA
Awards has spread the magic of Indian cinema to various exotic locales
around the world.



Toronto with its arge [South] Asian community shall pull through the
10th IIFA Awards, this would mean a tourism boost for Toronto which
was recently demonstrated when 30, 000 visitors poured into Yorkshire
for the awards earlier this year.

Other areas in competition for the 2009 awards show were New York,
Cologne and Turin though Toronto is now finalized as awards
destination. The venue was proposed by IIFA ambassador Amitabh
Bachchan while he was promoting his film The Last Lear in Toronto.

Wherever IIFA has left its mark, it has promoted the business of
Indian Cinema and provided it an impetus. Starting with the Millennium
Dome, London, IIFA has traveled through Sun City, Malaysia,
Johannesburg, Singapore, Amsterdam & Dubai,Yorkshire in 2007 and
Bagkok in 2008.


The IIFA Awards 2009, which are in its tenth year now, had hold its
voting process from 6 - 8 March.Each year actors, directors,
producers, technicians, composers and behind the scenes communities
cast their votes, which would decide the nominations for the main
awards.

The IIFA Voting process is a stringent and methodical procedure that
is closely monitored by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), the official
auditors for the event. The popular category nominations are put up on
online for the global audience to participate in the voting process.

Around a thousand people on average from the film industry from
directors to spot boys come in each year to vote at the weekend.

IIFA Advisory Board member& Producer Manmohan Shetty said, “IIFA has
grown into an event of repute over the last 9 years. This year, being
the 10th year of IIFA, the celebrations will be bigger! At the IIFA
voting weekend is the only Awards where the entire film Industry comes
to vote. The Technical Award winners and the Popular Award nominations
are derived from this voting weekend.”