Oscar night, Bollywood style, comes to Br

The cream of India's acting talent will be preening, parading and performing Saturday at Bollywood's answer to the Oscars, an annual highlight for the ambitious Hindi film industry.

The International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFAs) are taking place in Sheffield, northern England in front of an audience of 12,500, but some 500 million people in 110 countries are expected to watch on television.

Stars including India's most famous acting dynasty the Bachchans -- father Amitabh, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai -- will be gracing the stage for a spectacular of song, dance and music.

Father and son rivalry is likely to be one of the big stories of the night -- both Amitabh and Abhishek are nominated for the best supporting actor award for their appearences in "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna".

All eyes will also be on how controversial blockbuster "Rang De Basanti", which has secured 15 nominations and stars best actor nominee Aamir Khan, performs.

The movie, which also features Alice Patten, daughter of Chris Patten, Britain's last governor in Hong Kong, is about a filmmaker who wants to make a movie about Indian nationalists who rose up against British colonial rule.

Its release last year was delayed because producers did not obtain official clearance before shooting a horse-racing sequence, while the military had to approve a computer-generated scene showing the crash of a MiG-21 fighter jet.

"Rang De Basanti" was India's submission for best foreign language film at this year's Oscars but failed to secure a nomination.

Rai, a former Miss World, is nominated as best actress for action thriller "Dhoom 2," which is up for 10 awards overall.

The industrial heartland of Yorkshire, built on industries like mining and steel, may seem like an unlikely setting for such a flamboyant event, but the area has the third-largest population of British Asians in the UK.

Since Wednesday, when IIFA events leading up to the ceremony got under way, hundreds have flocked to see stars such as the Bachchans, Rai, Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty -- famous here after winning reality television show "Celebrity Big Brother" earlier this year in the face of a racist bullying row.

Those unable to afford or track down tickets for the IIFA event, which cost between 50 and 300 pounds (74 and 442 euros, 98 and 590 dollars) can pay up to 700 pounds for one from touts or watch the event on big screens in six cities around Yorkshire.

Another option is to crowd around the green carpet -- replacing the traditional red carpet at the awards to raise awareness of environmental issues -- outside the arena in Sheffield where the awards are taking place.

The IIFAs, first held in 2000, are always held in different locations around the world, such as Johannesburg, South Africa, and Amsterdam, to increase the international profile of Bollywood film.

On Friday, the Bachchans announced they would embark on a world tour with other Bollywood stars from April 2008 in a bid to boost worldwide interest in the industry's movies.

Viraf Sarkari, director of Wizcraft, the marketing firm behind the IIFAs, told AFP that the industry wanted to reach out both to members of the Indian diaspora and film fans with no links to India.

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2007 AFP - Bertrand Langlois

2007 AFP - Leon Neal