Entertainment / It’s Official: IIFA Is Set To Come To Toronto This Summer With Press Conference Featuring Anil Kapoor And Preity Zinta

It’s Official: IIFA Is Set To Come To Toronto This Summer With Press Conference Featuring Anil Kapoor And Preity Zinta

Entertainment Nov 28, 2012

by Hina P. Ansari

The "Bollywood Oscars" makes Toronto their first North American Host City

Note: Tickets go on sale January 20, 2011. www.ticketmaster.ca

It was -17 C with the wind-chill, but the Canadian media didn’t let that minor weather-related hitch, damper their spirits as they arrived in throngs at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, for the first IIFA Press Conferencewhich was held on January 19, 2011.

IIFA Weekend and Awards 2011, is presented by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., and boasts a plethora of sponsors including CIBC, Air India, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Thompson Hotel, and STAR TV, will
take place in Toronto from June 23 to June 25th, 2011.

This January morning had even the most seasoned veterans of entertainment reporting agog as the high-voltage star power: Bollywood’s leading man, Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire, 24 and MI5) and Bollywood’s leading lady, Preity Zinta (Heaven on Earth, Veer-Zaara, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) both who jetted into this city especially for this announcement. Politicos also flocked to the Fairmont including The Honorable Dalton McGuinty, The Premier of Ontario, (who was instrumental in bringing IIFA to Canada), Consul General of India, Ms. Preeti Saran, as well as members of Toronto Tourism, all here to celebrate Toronto being named as the next Host City for the 11th installment of the IIFA Weekend and Awards, giving the city boasting rights as the first North American spot to host such an event.

The Director of Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd , Sabbas Joseph took to the podium and immediately highlighted key economic benefits from hosting such an international event. Taking into account with Toronto being home to close to 600,000 South Asians, with South Asians being the largest visible minority in Canada, it comes as no surprise that the cash registers will be ringing in all four corners of the Greater Toronto Area as well as across North America. Joseph shared past Host Cities’ windfall including last summer’s Host City, Sri Lanka, which had close to 30,000 in attendance and reaped a whopping $85 Million USD in Public Relations value.

Ontario’s Premier, Dalton McGuinty fresh from hosting Kapoor at Queen’s Park a day earlier, was even more thrilled and quipped that he quickly realized that Kapoor was a “hugger”. After asking him about bringing Mumbai heat to the traditional Canadian wintery day, Kapoor quickly replied “here it is!” and affectionately embraced the Ontario Premier.

*Here is the IIFA Weekend and Awards 2011 breakdown of key events:

June 23- IIFA World Premiere at Silvercity Brampton Cinemas
June 24- IIFA Rocks at Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto
June 25- IIFA Awards at Rogers Centre, Toronto

*This is just part of their 3-day event schedule which also includes FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum, the IIFA Film Festival and IIFA Film Workshop

Not only is international cinema highlighted, but business is also one of the key themes during this 3-day event. Consul General of India, Ms. Preeti Saran enthused about the growing importance of Canada and India’s business communities and their wonderful working relationship as expressed through various trade missions to India, which took place this past year alone. And of course since Canada marks this year as, “The Year of India”, the IIFA Awards is the perfect fit to the year-long revelry.

Kapoor and Zinta were both confident and excited about IIFA’s ability to host a “big production”. And their affection for Canada and Toronto did not go unnoticed as Zinta quickly pointed out that Canada holds a special place in the hearts of the Bollywood community, as one of the premier locales for filmmaking, “It’s a place where you can find locations, that you can’t find anywhere across the world."

The theme of universality of cinema and South Asians’ unrivalled dedication to the motion picture arts, was not lost during the press conference, from one speaker to the next.

In addition to IIFA Weekend and Awards, and in keeping with “The Year of India” celebrations, Premier McGuinty also announced that the upcoming, Toronto International Film Festival will host a special film retrospective on maestro filmmaker, Raj Kapoor which received thunderous applause from the audience. Another great example of the bridge building between Hollywood and Bollywood.

And speaking of the former, now that awards season is underway and the Oscars are around the corner, who better to ask then two of the leading Bollywood players on their thoughts on Best Film. So I did….

And they didn’t hold back with their predictions:

Kapoor: The Social Network. I told my son—who thinks he knows everything (laughs)—that The Social Network would win. And it did win at the Golden Globes. So for the Oscar I think that’s it.

Zinta (quickly chimed in): I agree, The Social Network may win. However, I want to see The King’s Speech and Black Swan, maybe I’ll try to catch them here in Toronto.

Tickets for the upcoming for IIFA Weekend and Awards will be available for sale on January 20th, 2011 at www.ticketmaster.ca

For more information on IIFA please visit www.iifa.com

_{Source: iifa.com, imdb.com, premier.gov.ca, and twitter}

Hina P. Ansari

Author

Hina P. Ansari is a graduate from The University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario). Since then she has carved a successful career in Canada's national fashion-publishing world as the Entertainment/Photo Editor at FLARE Magazine, Canada's national fashion magazine. She was the first South Asian in...

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It’s Official: IIFA Is Set To Come To Toronto This Summer With Press Conference Featuring Anil Kapoor And Preity Zinta

by Hina P. Ansari

Hina P. Ansari

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