The Samsung International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2005 is all set to be staged at the Amsterdam Arena, in Amsterdam on June 11. Bollywood’s megastar and IIFA brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan, announced this at a press meet held in Delhi on May 16. This year, for the first time, the much awaited film extravaganza will showcase 27 selected films and host a business forum in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) called the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum.
The three-day long film festival will being held from June 9 to 12 and will witness the world premiere of the film ‘Parineeta’ directed by Pradeep Sarkar for producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, starring Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Raima Sen and Dia Mirza.
While Samsung has committed itself to the IIFA Awards for the third consecutive year, this year, the IIFA celebrations will be broadcast across the world by the STAR TV network instead of Sony Entertainment Television (SET), which till last year, was the official broadcast partner for the IIFA Awards.
On the occasion, Ravinder Zutshi, Deputy Managing Director, Samsung India, said, “We are very pleased to be associated with the IIFA Awards for the third consecutive year. The association with cinema and entertainment, which IIFA is synonymous with, is a natural platform for us to strengthen our communication with our consumers. Entertain-ment, marketing and sports marketing form the key elements of our overall brand strategy. And I would say that we have leveraged both these fairly successfully in the Indian market.”
Upbeat about STAR’s association with the IIFA awards for the first time, Ajay Vidyasagar, Sr. Vice President, Marketing & Communication, STAR TV, said, “STAR TV cuts across the globe spreading Hindi entertainment in a popular manner to audiences worldwide. STAR is an obvious choice and right platform for IIFA. It’s a known fact that Indian cinema enjoys huge following and has the ability to attract viewers, advertisers and distribution partners within and outside the country. We hope this will help lift our sense of delivery to all our audiences, advertisers and our distribution partners. We are sure that we will gain from the event, as it is virtually the numero uno cinema awards of the country.”
Vidyasagar pointed out that the IIFA awards are going to be a salient offering from the STAR stable along with the ‘STAR Parivar Awards’ and ‘KBC’ in the following weekends.
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