With the Olympic-style motto "One People, One World", it seeks to build bridges through cinema, in this case Indian cinema, which boasts of being the largest film industry in the world.
Beginning on Friday, the first event of the three-day programme is a global business forum at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok.
Organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which has nurtured a strong relationship with the Indian film industry, the one-day event will involve representatives of top business chambers from both countries, led by their ministers of commerce, Kamal Nath and Mingkwan Saengsuwan.
With bilateral trade between the two countries having increased to $4.7 billion in 2007, the forum will have panellists from the Board of Investment from Thailand, the Department of Industrial Policy and the Promotion from India, as well as the Federation of Thai Industries, the Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Indo-Thai Business Association.
The business talks will cover a wide variety of topics, including infrastructure development (roads, ports, airports and hotels), gems and jewellery, chemicals and petrochemicals, automotive and auto components, and holistic health centres and hospitals.
On Friday evening will be the world premiere of the much-awaited Indian film Sarkar Raj (Absolute Ruler) at Siam Paragon, made by dynamic Indian director Ram Gopal Verma, and starring Amitabh Bachchan, together with his son Abhishek Bachchan and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.
This is the first film the young couple have acted together since their high profile marriage last April. In fact, the couple were in Florida to celebrate their first wedding anniversary in April when this film was completed, and appeared in a video conference to join the celebratory party, held in Mumbai.
The film had exclusive screenings at the Cannes festival, which was attended by the entire Bachchan family, including Rai, who stole the show in her stunning outfit as the L'Oreal representative in Cannes.
Apart from being the No. 1 actress in Bollywood, the former Miss World has acted in many international productions, including Bride and Prejudice, Mistress of Spice and The Last Legion.
During the recent Iifa press conference at Bangkok, Amitabh Bachchan described her inner beauty as being more important than her much-publicised external beauty.
As for Abhishek Bachchan, Verma stated at the Iifa press conference in Bangkok that the youngster was a better actor than his co-starring father.
From the short clips of the film shown at the press conference, the audience was impressed by the powerful performances of the two Bachchans.
One got a taste of it in Verma's earlier film Sarkar, based on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, where the elder Bachchan plays a Don with riveting intensity, while son Abhishek matches him, scene for scene, with arresting power.
Verma's films are noted for their powerful characters and strong stories, often with underworld themes. His film Satya started a new genre of mafia cinema in India.
The film will have repeated public screenings, which is good news for Bollywood fans who missed getting tickets to its premiere.
Saturday will see a grand fashion show at Siam Paragon, where some of the top names in Indian fashion will display their exotic designs. These include world-famous designers like Rohit Bal, who does everything from airline uniforms to bridal outfits and jewellery, and Sabyaschi Mukherjee, whose arresting cross-cultural designs were shown at London Fashion Week earlier this year.
There will also be collections from the Mufti and Alta Mode fashion houses, and jewellery from Diamrusa and Jaipur Gems.
A special feature of the Bangkok show will be the first showing of an exclusive fashion line for Iifa, called Bling, which features top-end, ready-to-wear clothes by three young designers: Vikram Phadnis, Renu Chopra and Bina Kapoor.
Phadnis, who will direct his first film soon, uses intense colours like reds, fuchsias, violets, emerald greens and also a monochrome shine to reflect the rich colours and textures of Bangkok.
Chopra and Kapoor's clothes are inspired by Amitabh Bachchan's new film Bhoothnath, whose London premiere he flew to immediately after his Iifa press conference in Bangkok.
This is the first time the Iifa's new Bling fashion line, inspired totally by Indian cinema, will be shown to a global audience, and there will be outlets for these clothes in cities around the world, including Bangkok.
On June 8, the gala awards evening will be held at the Siam Niramit auditorium. The 2,000-capacity venue does not compare with the huge stadiums of the earlier Iifa Events (the last was held at the Sheffield Stadium, Yorkshire, with an audience of 15,000), which will disappoint many Bollywood fans in Bangkok, who will have to watch the show on television instead.
The awards night will be an entertainment-studded extravaganza, with music, dance, drama and all the spectacular action that Indian films are famous for.
The films in competition at the Iifa Awards are from last year, and include Mani Ratnam's Guru (starring Abhishek Bachchan and Rai in a story of romance and high drama), Chak De! India (a sports drama starring Shahrukh Khan), Om Shanti Om (a musical with Shahrukh Khan and newcomer Deepika Padukone), Life in a ... Metro (starring Shilpa Shetty) and Jab We Met(starring Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor).
Two of the films, Chak de India and Mani Ratnam's Guru, were selected by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand for screening in the build-up to the festival.
The stars of all the movies in competition, and many others, will be in Bangkok for the Iifa weekend.
Due to limited seating in the auditoriums in Bangkok, the events are on an invitation-only basis. Star TV will relay the events of the three-day programme all around the world.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment