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 The International Indian Film Academy's awards show set for
Saturday has been compared to the Super Bowl in terms of its
security needs, traffic management and planning. But its
expected worldwide viewership of 800 million far surpasses the
championship American football game's 111.5 million viewers on
average in 2014.
The film academy's choice of Tampa, home to Florida's
third-largest South Asian community, to host its first
U.S.-based awards show in the event's 15-year history came as a
happy surprise to some fans.
"I jumped out of my seat," said Rubia Qureshi, 22, a local
resident who grew up watching Bollywood films, known for their
distinctive and elaborate song-and-dance performances. "I'm the
biggest fan."
Qureshi and her mother, who is of Pakistani heritage, joined
hundreds of others eager to snap photos of movie stars as they
arrived at the Tampa airport and walked the industry's signature
green carpet. Fans were so excited at the arrival of actress
Deepika Padukone on Wednesday that they knocked over a security
barrier.
Other celebrities taking part in the event include American
actors John Travolta and Kevin Spacey as well as India's Anil
Kapoor, best known to U.S. audiences for his 2008 role in "Slumdog
Millionaire," and Shah Rukh Khan, an actor who has more than 7.4
million followers on Twitter.
STAR SIGHTINGS
The star sightings have created a buzz, but perhaps more
exciting to local officials is the potential economic impact of
hosting the awards as well as the prospect of building stronger
business, cultural and tourism ties with India.
This week's event is expected to bring 30,000 visitors and $11
million in revenue, organizers said. It also will lay the
groundwork for longer-term opportunities with business owners
who attend, said Tampa cardiologist Kiran Patel, the event's
biggest private backer.
"Ultimately this is not a four-day event," said Tampa Mayor Bob
Buckhorn. "This is a multi-decade relationship."
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The $2 billion Indian film industry has a wide global reach and
produces more movies each year than Hollywood, though the U.S. film
industry generates five times more revenue, according to the Tampa
Bay Times.
The film academy's decision to come to the United States, and
particularly Tampa, is credited in part to the strength of the
city's Indian-American community, which numbers more than 23,500
people.
The effects of the community's organization and growth can be seen
throughout the Tampa Bay area where several large movie houses show
Bollywood films. Indian restaurants and grocery stores are common,
weekly cricket games are held at county parks and nearly a dozen
Indian temples dot the area.
The film academy's kickoff event on Wednesday night drew as many as
8,000 people to a downtown park, 40 percent of whom were not of
Indian heritage, the mayor said. There they got a taste of the rich
culture as deejays spun Indian music and local Bollywood-style dance
troupes performed.
Kapoor said connections have grown wherever he has traveled for the
Indian awards show, and he predicted the same result for the
countries with the world's two biggest film industries.
"It bridges the gap which has been between Hollywood and Bollywood,"
he said.
(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and G. Crosse)
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