IIFA Awards or International Indian Film Academy Awards promotes Indian cinema at an international level. In the event awards are presented by the International Indian Film Academy annually for commemorating the technical as well as artistic excellence of the Bollywood or Hindi film industry professionals. Every year it is held in different countries all around the globe. The promotion of Indian cinema globally has benefited its fans across the world. Such an endeavour has also enabled India to showcase its talent to the rest of the world. The ceremony awards the films belonging to the previous calendar year.
History of IIFA Awards
The first edition of IIFA Awards was held at the Millennium Dome, London, in the year 2000. Since then it has been held at different venues, such as, Sun City (2001), Malaysia (2002), Johannesburg (2003), Singapore (2004), Amsterdam, Netherlands (2005), Dubai (2006), Yorkshire (2007), Bangkok, Thailand (2008), Macau (2009), Colombo, Sri Lanka (2010), Toronto, Canada (2011), Singapore (2012) and Macau (2013) representing the international success of the Hindi film industry. Since its inception it has evolved from a one night event to a three day celebration and has been hosting diverse activities and events associated with the Indian film industry. In 2009, the event introduced five special awards namely Director of the Decade, Music of the Decade, Movie of the Decade and Star of the Decade (Male and Female). Till the year 2010, the Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan served as the Brand Ambassador of the IIFA.
15th IIFA Awards
15th International Indian Film Academy Awards or IIFA Awards was organized from 23rd to 26th April 2014 by the International Indian Film Academy to honour the best films of the year 2013. The official ceremony was held on 26th April 2014 at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, in the United States. The nominations for the event were announced on 20th February. The event was televised nationally as well as internationally on the television channel Star Plus. 15th IIFA Awards was co-hosted by Farhan Akhtar and Shahid Kapoor. On 25th April 2014 IIFA Rocks, also known as IIFA Music and Fashion Extravaganza, was held. Technical awards were also presented on this very event by the Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan.