Bachchan wants Pak to host Indian Film Awards
Saturday, 09 April , 2005, 18:04
Amsterdam (The Netherlands): Bollywood screen idol Amitabh Bachchan urged India’s huge film industry to consider staging a prestigious awards ceremony in Pakistan, as hopes of improved ties between the two nuclear rivals grow.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-4-2005_pg7_51
The veteran film star said he would ask the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) to consider holding its annual awards ceremony in Pakistan. He is a member of the IIFA’s advisory board and the academy’s global ambassador.
“I am a member of the advisory board and I would most certainly bring this up at some stage that we should hold an IIFA in Pakistan,” said Bachchan, who has starred in 110 films and is an idol to Bollywood’s hundreds of millions of followers.
Actors, producers and directors believe Bollywood, followed closely in Pakistan as well as India, has the power to help bring the divided countries closer together amid hopes of improved relations between the neighbours.
“An imaginary line is dividing two countries and creating a lot of hostility. We need to stop that. Everywhere in the world now barriers are being removed and people are coming together,” Bachchan told Reuters in an interview.
“I hope that we can, as a result of film making and exchange of culture and films and events, be able to propagate peace,” he said on a visit to the Netherlands, which will host this year’s IIFA awards ceremony in June.
we have and can make quality shows… we even have had our own music and tv awards with quality production in the past. so stop stereotyping.
