Florida saw a flow of celebrities and dignitaries from India and the United States for the “Bollywood Oscars” that were hosted in Florida after the event was hosted in an effort to create deeper ties between America and India.
The International Indian Film Academy’s (IIFA) awards show that was hosted on Saturday has been compared to the Super Bowl in terms of security needs, traffic management and planning. The show had and expected viewership of 800 million viewers and has been termed as the most watched Indian cinema awards show.
One of the reasons for the film academy’s choice of Tampa was the fact that it is home to the third-largest South Asian community and the academy decided to host their first ever U.S.-based awards show since the event started 15 years ago. The strength of the city’s Indian-American community stands 23,500 strong.
The week’s event has been speculated to bring 30,000 visitors and $11 million in revenue, as said by the organisers. It also will lay the groundwork for longer-term opportunities withbusiness owners who attend, said Tampa cardiologist Kiran Patel, the event’s biggest private backer.
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.