Tuesday, July 5, 2011

How grand really, were the IIFA awards??

Blogdosts... this was sent to me as a forward by a usually reliable source. I cannot vouch for its authenticity, but it seems genuine enough. If any of you reading this happened to be at the venue, you'd know!

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Written by Nitin Kumar

wish to give you my notions on the supposedly grand IIFA awards that just happened last weekend.

All over the social media including the page of a prominent South Asian website, many South Asians are criticizing the actual awards ceremony. Even though the stage was fascinating and the production fabulous, the show itself was a big disappointment filled with corny jokes and poor performances with panting lead dancers, uncomfortable pauses of silence, sub-grade sound quality, etc. The show was so pathetic that the hosts had to actually ask people for standing ovations! Standing ovations should come impromptu, when the performers say or do something that strikes a chord with the audience. Also, not enough big time stars showed up. Preity Zinta, Hritik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and a host of others were no shows.

So what did we taxpayers get for $12m that Michael Chan, the Ontario minister for tourism and culture, proclaimed Ontario dished out? Even he on Matt Galloway’s CBC metro morning show on Tuesday, June 21 seemed sceptical about the immediate benefits that supposedly drew in only 40,000 visitors, unlike other home grown festivals that draw a million plus visitors. All we got was a poorly organized and second rate awards ceremony that did not respect time (it started an hour late) and dragged on for 5 hours so that by the time the people rolled out, there was no TTC available to go home. Also many are questioning as to what exactly happened to the $12m? Was it used to pay exorbitant fees to enrich already rich Indian actors? If that is the case, surely the money will go out of Canada. And for what? To please the South Asian diaspora from which many are actually cribbing at how badly they got ripped off?

Besides this, right after the Brampton buzz event held over the June 17-19 weekend, one bold Bramptonian questioned the Mayor of Brampton on her facebook page as to what happened to the $300K that was apportioned to Brampton. The reply from the Mayor’s office was that no such amount was spent on the buzz event, that they were rumours. Also the rumoured $50K-$80K paid to Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu was denied. A few hours after Michael Chan came on CBC radio stating that all communities got $300K through a program called ‘Celebrate’, the whole thread on this subject was deleted from the Mayor of Brampton’s facebook page. Are we living in a democracy where we are allowed to express our opinion freely or what? Isn’t the Mayor’s facebook page there to express citizens’ gripes as well as praise the Mayor for the many good things she has done (and she definitely has, I will not deny that).

Another major question is did IIFA really crack the mainstream market? As Matt Galloway said on CBC metro morning, GTA’s number one morning radio show, for many it is a circus.

So Ontario dished out $12m plus $300K for each community, i.e $13m plus for a mediocre circus?! One that did not even please the audience it was meant for?! Maybe there was more money spent that we are unaware of.

Mohit Rajhans- who also comes on CBC radio, asked Bollywood actor Anupam Kher at the awards if Toronto should host more such shows. Kher said yes. When Mohit asked our premier Dalton McGuinty the same question, he was non-committal; some say the premier’s mannerism was such that even he seemed unsure about the sanity of spending so many millions for a circus.

I hope the Ontario government has learned a lesson. $13m could have been better spent on more meaningful programs. If certain cultures want to break into the North American market, they should do it on their own steam and money not ours

15 comments:

Tsomo85 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tsomo85 said...

SAD! Funny I only watched the first part of IIFA for like 10 min for the longest & then stopped and never went back to finish it. And I have never done anything like this to any award up till now, not even to those soap tv awards. Most of time I really enjoy them soap stars performance, most of them are very good at it as well. WOW! Sad news for tdot! Million $$$$ pani maygaye! :(

hamaarethoughts.com said...

its surprising!

Divya (Virmani) Chadda said...

I was disappointed as well. Was hoping for great perfomances from Akshay, Abhishek, Govinda, Salman; but none showed up! It seemed as if Shah Rukh Khan had bought the IIFA and took all the awards which he never deserved. My name is Khan is the most stupidest movie made by Karan Johar. SRK definitely holds potential but MNIK was not his cup of tea. I don't understand what's the fuss is all about! There was so many deserving movies such as Ishqiya, Once upon in Mumbai, Udaan. But... oh well, at the end of the day, only money matters!

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Lost Boy said...

Well..i am not at all surprised that the show was such a big dampener. Most of the bollywood award functions are crappy and feature hosts who have absolutely no idea how it has to be hosted. They crack some of the most idiotic corny jokes and they themselves laugh at it. (Specially Sajid Khan) Most of it seems like it was done or improvised last minute. Spending crores on these clowns does not mean you get the best of entertainment.

goodluck said...

When Bachchan was the face of IIFA, it used to be a really grand affair. Though it seemed like a family thing with almost all the Bachchans getting some sort of award. Then the Sri Lanka thing happened. Though Bachchan was willing to grace that function, some fanatic LTTE elements blackmailed and threatened him. He should have gone ahead because other stars who attended were brave enough unlike the onscreen bravado of our aged hero.
Now IIFA looks like a headless orphan.

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चंद्रमौलेश्वर प्रसाद said...

I think too many such shows are spoiling the charm of those good olden days when Filmfare awards were looked with awe by the viewers>

Ashwini Sane said...

M'am, I think we are having an overdose of these awards,jokes, and stars-just like IPL. In fact who cares anymore? People have more important things on their minds to really care about such events. Things are so expensive that seeing OTT things becomes an eyesore.I think such events should be toned down during such times, but hey who is going to listen to a party pooper like me!!

Nitesh Chitranshi said...

Hello, First of all you look gorgeous :)
I don't really have an exact idea about how big was IIFA.. but to mention it was a HUGE SUCCESS like every year.. I watched it on TV .. loved that.. Every year I wait for the event to happen.. Simpply awesome. :)
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malini said...

Was it that bad? i have no idea, i completely missed it, i never miss the IIfa.. Though saw live singing performances by shankar mahadevan and sonu nigham, and was really happy to see something other than than the usual routine of thumkas and jhatkas by leading actresses.. now common, how much can you digest the kareenas and aishwarya's dancing to the same old songs.. so it was welcome to see these singers singing.. and when i saw it for a short while- sonu had the crowd, eg- arshad, neha dhupia etc standing and dancing at sonu's rendition of jhule laal.. so i was happy that its thoda hatke,, and then the usual started, we had jalebi bai and then i changed channels.. and got busy..
In short i liked the change with live and REAL performances...

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