Extravagant show to make its debut in the U.S.
By American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: The glamorous International Indian Film Academy’s (IIFA) annual awards show, which is arguably the most popular show of its kind for the Bollywood fraternity, and attracts the best and top stars to show up and perform at it, is going to be hosted by Tampa Bay, Florida, next year in June, marking the awards’ debut in the United States.
The awards extravaganza, which concludes its annual edition today in Macao, were bid by other cities in the US as well for next year, including Las Vegas and Chicago, apart from Barbados in the Caribbean and Johannesburg in South Africa.
IIFA has come close to the US shores in the recent past, when it was hosted by Toronto, but next year’s show in Tampa is being earmarked by the city as a major event for the city’s economic overhaul, and it hopes to be firmly recognized as an international tourist destination and an ideal place for Bollywood to make movies.
A jubilant Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who credited determined local officials and a group of Indian American businessmen and community leaders who had gone to Macau to bid for the event for bagging the lucrative deal, was of the opinion that the successful Republican National Convention held in the city in 2012 helped clinch it.
“It’s an amazing international event, the likes of which Tampa and the U.S. have never seen before,” he said in an interview to the Associated Press, citing local officials who say that previous IIFA events have generated more than 24,000 room nights with a local economic impact exceeding $11 million.
According to a press release issued by the city, in the last 14 years, IIFA has traveled to four continents including Africa, Europe, Asia and North America. Organizers say that apart from several parties and ceremonies to held over several days coinciding with the awards show – to be held at prominent venues across town, including the Tampa Bay Times Forum, the Florida State Fairgrounds, and Raymond James Stadium – there will be unique crowd pulling shows like converting the local baseball stadium into a cricket stadium, which will host a match between celebrities and cricketers.
It’s high time that the awards show is being held on American soil since the US is the largest grossing market for Bollywood films – which last year churned out some 1,500 films – after India.  In recent years, New York City has also been in the fray for contesting the awards show, and it was a disappointment for US fans when even Toronto and Colombo in Sri Lanka got to host it.