IIFA weekend in Yorkshire to include business, sports meets.
The International Indian Film Academy Awards, to be presented this year in Yorkshire – the second time that these awards are being given in the United Kingdom – will be bigger with greater grandeur than ever before.
Megastar and IIFA Brand Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan told a news conference in New Delhi that a lot of new features had been added to the IIFA weekend from June 7 to 10 in different towns of this British district, which is referred to by the tourist operators as 'God's Own County'.
Apart from premieres of new films, the awards function itself and the Business Forum meet which is now an inherent part of every IIFA event, this year's event will also see a friendly cricket match between an IIFA XI and a Yorkshire XI. In addition, this year's IIFA is going green by joining hands with a movement against global warming known as Global Cool.
The press meet held at a hotel in Gurgaon near New Delhi was addressed among others by popular film star Anil Kapoor, Wizcraft Director Sabbas Joseph, senior functionaries from Yorkshire, Star TV Vice-President (Sales) Paritosh Joshi, former FICCI President Y K Modi, and Mr Sanjeev Aga of Idea Cellular which is the title sponsor of the event.
Amitabh said that the annual event had been launched in the Millennium Dome in London in 2000 more as a celebration of Indian cinema, but had gradually grown to become a major bridge among different cultures and communities.
Referring to the IIFA Bonding with Global Cool was a great step forward in saving the planet from the 'dangerous future looming before us' - global warming. He said one estimate had said that the disastrous effects of global warming will begin manifesting themselves on mankind in just eight years. However, he said steps could be taken to prevent this, and urged people to switch off all electrical appliances that were not in use, and avoid mistakes like over-charging mobile phones since all this led to release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Captained by Saif Ali Khan, the IIFA XI will include Kapil Dev, Ajay Judeja, Mohammed Azharuddin, Rakyesh Mehra, Shaan, Emraan Hashmi, Sohail Khan, Dino Morea, Fardeen Khan, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Aftab Shivdasani, Tushar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Kunal Kapoor, Ritiesh Deshmukh and others. Chunkey Pandey and Boman Irani will be the commentators with Preity Zinta and Urmila Matondkar joining them, and Shilpa Shetty and Salman Khan will join Amitabh at the toss of the coin.
Yorkshire's legendary Dickie Bird is making a unique one-off comeback as umpire.
The full team Yorkshire line up includes: former Yorkshire and England player and umpire John Hampshire, actor Greg Wise (supported by his partner - actress Emma Thompson), Leeds Rhinos player Danny MaGuire, Yorkshire media personality and BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration, Normanton MP Ed Balls, up and coming Panjabi singer Juggy D, popular Brit-Asian singer Jay Sean, comedians Nick Hancock and Mark Chapman and former England players Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small, Robin Smith and Phillip Defreitas.
Tickets are priced at 22 for adults and 12 for children, with proceeds being donated to the IIFA Foundation.
Tickets for the IIFA Foundation Celebrity Cricket Match at the Headingley Carnegie Stadium in Leeds on Friday 8 June 2007 will be sold via the following outlets:
Online: Yorkshireccc.com
Edited by urooj - 17 years ago
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