The venue for one of India’s most prestigious Hindi film awards, the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFAA) will be in Sri Lanka this year. The announcement was made by the Sri Lankan tourism ministry last week.
Since its inception in 2000, IIFAA has been held in locales like London, Amsterdam, Singapore, Johannesburg, Dubai and Macau.
“We bid for the IIFAA awards last year. Both parties (the Tourism ministry of the Sri Lankan government and IIFA organisers) have agreed to hold the awards here. We are in the final stages of negotiations to finalise finer details,” says Dileep Mudadeniya, managing director, Sri Lankan Tourism Promotion Bureau.
Sri Lanka was competing against Singapore, South Korea and South Africa to be the host country for the prestigious film awards. Shefali Munshi, one of the IFAA organizers says that the awards hopes to give Sri Lanka a boost, knowing that it is a country coming out of a 30-year war.
Mudadeniya also says that the IIFAA organizers have asked for specific facilities for the various ceremonies and functions.
Daily News, a government-run newspaper has stated that a T-20 cricket match between Bollywood stars and crickets will also be organized.
The exact venue will soon be announced at a press conference in Mumbai.
