‘Slumdog’ kids shine at IIFA green carpet

June 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Singer-actress Sophie Chaudhary struck an instant camaraderie with Australian singer Peter Andre at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, but denies any romantic involvement with him. Peter was sweet and a thorough gentleman.

June 14th, 2009 MACAU - Flowing, elaborate, layered and slinky Western dresses scored over the India sari or salwar kameez for most Bollywood actresses at the green carpet of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards here. While only Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra among the A-listers stuck to the graceful six-yard drape, most others like Bipasha Basu, Kangana Ranaut, Mughda Godse, Genelia D'Souza, Sushmita Sen, Diya Mirza, Amrita Rao and others proudly showed off their curves in body hugging Western attires.

June 13th, 2009 MACAU - Director Ashutosh Gowariker's magnum opus "Jodhaa Akbar" Saturday bagged the maximum awards in the technical category at the IDEA International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards here. While ace designer Neeta Lulla walked away with the best costume design award for "Jodhaa Akbar", best editing trophy went to Ballu Saluja and best art direction to Nitin Chandrakant Desai for the Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starrer historical romance.

June 13th, 2009 The first look of forthcoming Indian films Jail and Do Knot Disturb unveiled at the Videocon IIFA Weekend 2009   As IIFA celebrates a decade of magic, it continues with its vision of building bridges across cinema, businesses, communities and nations. A key focus of IIFA is to highlight the achievements of Indian cinema on a global platform.

June 12th, 2009 MACAU - Whether it is 63-year-old Kabir Bedi or Riteish Deshmukh, who is almost half the latter's age, Bollywood's unmarried men were spotted with their girlfriends at the ongoing International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) weekend here. While Kabir Bedi walked in on the first day's green carpet hand in hand with his much-younger girlfrend Parveen Dusanj, Riteish descended with his rumoured girlfriend Genelia D'Souza.

June 12th, 2009 MACAU - Product placement in Bollywood took on a whole new meaning at the IIFA Fashion Extravaganza here Friday night in aid of film industry workers, even as a number of film stars walked the ramp, but the jokes scripted by hosts Zayed Khan and Sophie Chaudhary fell quite flat. The Shiamak Davar dancers introduced the latest mobile phone by sponsor Videocon in an energetic routine before the first two models of the new phone to be launched soon were autographed on stage by Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor, to be auctioned off later in aid of the IIFA Foundation which supports widows and orphans of film industry workers.

June 11th, 2009 MACAU - Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchans wax figure, which was unveiled at the Madame Tussauds museum in New York last month, has been especially flown in to be showcased at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards event here. Amitabhs wax figure, dressed in a traditional black sherwani suit with a heavily embroidered gold and black shawl, is the first figure to be part of Madame Tussauds New York's all-new Bollywood Zone.

June 11th, 2009 MACAU - Oscar winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty says he wants to help a "technically talented student" and has decided to sponsor one student every year. Pookutty, who graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune 15 years ago, will sponsor a student of the institute.

June 11th, 2009 MACAU - Terrorism in an unnamed but well-developed country was now being defined in terms of pre and post the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards being hosted there, according to IIFA director Sabbas Joseph. Speaking at the launch of IIFA here Thursday, Joseph did not name the country, but it could easily be deduced that he was referring to Britain, where the IIFA Awards have been held twice.

June 10th, 2009 The countdown has begun with as the stars of Bollywood have already started to make their presence felt in Macau for IIFA Awards 2009. Last night many of the biggies from the industry flew to the event.

June 8th, 2009 Shahid Kapoor has had to change his plans of attending IIFA and performing there for his upcoming film Kaminey. Though the actor was looking forward to his performance, the dates could not be adjusted as 3 of his films (Kaminey, Pathshala and Yashraj Films untitled) are ready for release and there is patchwork shoot remaining for Ken Ghosh’s untitled film.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Brand ambassador of International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA), Amitabh Bachchan, said on Tuesday that the aim of the organization while choosing a new location each time was meant to spread the Bollywood awareness across the globe. "The idea really is to be as expansive as possible to reach various parts of the universe and go places which are relatively unheard of as far as Indian cinema is concerned and be able to carry our cinema there," said Amitabh Bachchan in a conference in New Delhi.

June 2nd, 2009 LONDON - British director Danny Boyle has requested the media to leave the young stars of Slumdog Millionaire alone as he feels constant attention is ruining their lives. Azharuddin Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali, 9, were catapulted into the limelight following the global success of "Slumdog Millionaire".

May 27th, 2009 LONDON - Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is flying to India to rescue the films child stars. The British filmmaker fears the lives of slum kids Azhar Ismail (10) and Rubina Ali (9) are spiralling downwards despite their Oscars success, reported thesun.co.uk.

May 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Animal welfare organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has urged members of the India International Film Academy (IIFA) and its brand ambassador, Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, to avoid non-vegetarian meals at the forthcoming event to be held in Macau, China next month. On behalf of PETA, its chief functionary Anuradha Sawhney sent a letter in this regard to Sabbas Joseph, one of the directors of Wizcraft that organises IIFA, and its vegetarian celebrity face Amitabh after learning that the event will have a 'Go-Green' theme, said a press release.