Paparazzi: Bollywood Oscars 2014

by Claude Julian | ARCHIVES

Stunner Baby Magazine is proud to provide international coverage of India’s IIFA Awards film industries Bollywood celebration in the United States.   It is tagged as the so-called Bollywood Oscars have been held in Macau, Singapore, London and now Tampa, Florida on Saturday, April 26, 2014.  Hundreds of Indian film stars and thousands of Bollywood fans flooded Tampa for the International Indian Film Academy’s awards extravaganza, four days of song-and-dance performances and movie screenings. Hollywood stars John Travolta and Kevin Spacey appeared on the green carpet with Bollywood stars in front of thousands of fans before an extravagant awards show that celebrates the best in Indian cinema.

Some 20,000 people are expected to attend the show Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium. Travolta, Spacey and dozens of Indian film stars including Deepika Padukone walked slowly past massive volume of international media outside the stadium on Saturday night prior to the awards. Unlike the Academy Awards, IIFA uses a green carpet instead of a red one. Travolta, was honored with an award, posed for photos with his arm around actress Priyanka Chopra. Indian moviegoers love “Saturday Night Live” and “Grease” for Travolta dance inspired films which has influenced today’s Indian’s creative direction in film and music videos. During a packed news conference Saturday afternoon, Travolta said he is currently considering a role in a Bollywood movie.  John Travolta will be honored at the awards show as the “Most Popular All Time International Star In India.”

“I cannot deny music and dance in my life,” he told reporters. “It is part of my soul. This is part of most of Bollywood’s films and I agree with it.”

About 800 million people will watch the ceremony on television or the Internet, according to organizers. Shades of Bollywood were everywhere in the area. The top floor of the Tampa International Airport parking garage was transformed into a reception area for Bollywood bigwigs and autograph-seeking fans. Shahid Kapoor, an actor with 4 million followers on Twitter, arrived to a small crowd at the VIP area. He was a scheduled co-host of the awards ceremony.  Elsewhere, security was trained on how best to handle enthusiastic fans and service workers were taught how to accommodate Indian visitors (tip: “just because you don’t recognize them, doesn’t mean they aren’t famous”.) Tampa was chosen because city and tourism leaders were aggressive. Sabbas Joseph, the director of the academy and entertainment company Wizcraft International, said Tampa officials even took a few jabs at the competition, telling him: “Orlando mice, Miami vice and Tampa nice.”  Tourism leaders were thrilled and hope to draw more wealthy Indian tourists to the area.
Spotted during Saturday afternoon festivities, ‘House of Cards’ star Kevin Spacey held a master acting class with Priyanka Chopra. When asked what he thought about Hollywood and Bollywood working together, Spacey sparked a roar from a large crowd with his answer:

“Well, it’s about fuckin’ time,” he said.

The awards cap off four days of well-attended events, much to the delight of Tampa tourism authorities and lovers of Indian film and culture. The event has drawn the biggest Indian celebrities, including Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan. The contenders for Best Picture are Dhoom 3, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Krrish 3, Chennai Express, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela and Kai Po Che.

Bollywood is the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole Indian cinema; however, it is only a part of the large Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing films in multiple languages. Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world.

In the 2000s, Bollywood began influencing musical films in the Western world, and played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the American musical film genre. Baz Luhrmann stated that his musical film “Moulin Rouge” (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. The film incorporated an Indian-themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama Mṛcchakatika and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate. The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western musical genre, and subsequently films such as “Chicago”, “The Producers”, “Rent”,

Stunner Baby Magazine is proud to provide international coverage of India’s IIFA Awards film industries, Bollywood celebration in the United States. It is tagged as the so-called Bollywood Oscars have been held in Macau, Singapore, London and now Tampa, Florida on Saturday, April 26, 2014. Hundreds of Indian film stars and thousands of Bollywood fans flooded Tampa for the International Indian Film Academy’s awards extravaganza, four days of song-and-dance performances and movie screenings. Hollywood stars John Travolta and Kevin Spacey appeared on the green carpet with Bollywood stars in front of thousands of fans before an extravagant awards show that celebrates the best in Indian cinema.

Some 20,000 people are expected to attend the show Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium. Travolta, Spacey and dozens of Indian film stars including Deepika Padukone walked slowly past massive volume of international media outside the stadium on Saturday night prior to the awards. Unlike the Academy Awards, IIFA uses a green carpet instead of a red one. Travolta, was honored with an award, posed for photos with his arm around actress Priyanka Chopra. Indian moviegoers love “Saturday Night Live” and “Grease” for Travolta dance inspired films which has influence today’s Indian’s creative direction in film and music videos. During a packed news conference Saturday afternoon, Travolta said he is currently considering a role in a Bollywood movie. John Travolta will be honored at the awards show as the “Most Popular All Time International Star In India.”

“I cannot deny music and dance in my life,” he told reporters. “It is part of my soul. This is part of most of Bollywood’s films and I agree with it.”

About 800 million people will watch the ceremony on television or the Internet, according to organizers. Shades of Bollywood were everywhere in the area. The top floor of the Tampa International Airport parking garage was transformed into a reception area for Bollywood bigwigs and autograph-seeking fans. Shahid Kapoor, an actor with 4 million followers on Twitter, arrived to a small crowd at the VIP area. He was a scheduled co-host of the awards ceremony.

Elsewhere, security was trained on how best to handle enthusiastic fans and service workers were taught how to accommodate Indian visitors (tip: “just because you don’t recognize them, doesn’t mean they aren’t famous”). Tampa was chosen because city and tourism leaders were aggressive. Sabbas Joseph, the director of the academy and entertainment company Wizcraft International, said Tampa officials even took a few jabs at the competition, telling him: “Orlando mice, Miami vice and Tampa nice.” Tourism leaders were thrilled and hope to draw more wealthy Indian tourists to the area.

Spotted during Saturday afternoon festivities, ‘House of Cards’ star Kevin Spacey held a master acting class with Priyanka Chopra. When asked what he thought about Hollywood and Bollywood working together, Spacey sparked a roar from a large crowd with his answer:

“Well, it’s about fuckin’ time,” he said.

The awards cap off four days of well-attended events, much to the delight of Tampa tourism authorities and lovers of Indian film and culture. The event has drawn the biggest Indian celebrities, including Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan. The contenders for Best Picture are Dhoom 3, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Krrish 3, Chennai Express, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela and Kai Po Che.  Bollywood is the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole Indian cinema; however, it is only a part of the large Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing films in multiple languages. Bollywood is one of the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world.

In the 2000s, Bollywood began influencing musical films in the Western world, and played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the American musical film genre. Baz Luhrmann stated that his musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. The film incorporated an Indian-themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama Mṛcchakatika and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate. The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago, The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe, The Phantom of the Opera, Enchanted, and Mamma Mia! were produced, fuelling a renaissance of the genre.

R. Rahman, an Indian film composer, wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams, and a musical version of Hum Aapke Hain Koun has played in London’s West End. The Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Academy, and two other Bollywood films Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which has won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by Bollywood films.

Santiago Corrada, the president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, the area’s tourism arm, said a private donor gave about $9 million to help bring the awards to the area. The county and state provided about $1.1 million to promote the event and market Florida.
The city has shown there’s an appetite for Indian glitter and glam, despite having a small Indian-American population. Cheap seats at Raymond James Stadium, usually where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team plays, start at $93. Pricier options run all the way up to $3,295. Nearly all of 25,000 available tickets have been sold.

The average U.S. moviegoer might not be able to name a Bollywood flick that isn’t called “Slumdog Millionaire,” which won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Picture. But that could change, with movies such as “The Lunchbox,” a quiet romance from 2013 set in Mumbai. It won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award at Cannes. With a population of 1.2 billion people, Bollywood films can quickly become a box office smash based on sheer volume. Plus, labor and marketing costs are cheap compared to U.S. films. The average U.S. flick costs $47.7 million, while the average film in India costs about $1.5 million to make, said Uday Singh, the chairman of the Los Angeles India Film Council.

“Dreamgirls,” “Hairspray,” Sweeney Todd,” “Across the Universe,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Mamma Mia!” were produced fueling a renaissance of the genre.  R. Rahman, an Indian film composer, wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bombay Dreams” and a musical version of “Hum Aapke Hain Koun” has played in London’s West End. The Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Academy, and two other Bollywood films, “Devdas” (2002) and “Rang De Basanti” (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Danny Boyle’s, “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008), which has won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by Bollywood films.

Santiago Corrada, the president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, the area’s tourism arm, said a private donor gave about $9 million to help bring the awards to the area. The county and state provided about $1.1 million to promote the event and market Florida.
The city has shown there’s an appetite for Indian glitter and glam, despite having a small Indian-American population. Cheap seats at Raymond James Stadium, usually where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team plays, start at $93. Pricier options run all the way up to $3,295. Nearly all of 25,000 available tickets have been sold.  The average U.S. moviegoer might not be able to name a Bollywood flick that isn’t called “Slumdog Millionaire” (winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Picture) but that could change, with movies such as “The Lunchbox”, a quiet romance from 2013 set in Mumbai.  It won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award at Cannes.

With a population of 1.2 billion people, Bollywood films can quickly become a box office smash based on sheer volume. Plus, labor and marketing costs are cheap compared to U.S. films. The average U.S. flick costs $47.7 million, while the average film in India costs about $1.5 million to make, said Uday Singh, the chairman of the Los Angeles India Film Council.

BOLLYWOOD OSCARS 2014 GALLERY