Bollywood aheads to Holland

NEW DELHI, May 17(Online): For the tiny European country of the Netherlands, the International Indian Film Academy Awards are bigger than a Tina Turner show. Bono and his band U2 don't even stand a chance with the song and dance routine of Hindi movies and it seems that the biggest film industry in the world has finally found a little corner beyond the "desi" shores to arrive on the global match.

Being held in the land of the never-ending tulip fields that Yash Chopra's "Silsila" made immortal on celluloid, the IIFA Awards this year at Amsterdam will be more than just about movies. Partnering with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the first time, Bollywood is focusing on business.

"This is the first time that we are partnering with IIFA to host the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum. We have identified five sectors -- cinema and broadcasting, tourism, civil aviation, information and computer technology and agro-processing," said the FICCI Secretary-General, Amit Mitra, at a press conference in the Capital on Monday.

Celebrating Indian cinema abroad, IIFA Awards might be about the desi diaspora seeing their stars, but it is finally always about new markets. With countries that have hosted the IIFA awards usually signing tie-ups with Indian distributors for Hindi movies, the IIFA Awards are eventually about business behind the glamour.

"India is booming economically. I believe that when a country does well economically, everything about it from culture to food becomes popular. Indian cinema is being noticed. There is a huge appreciation of it, I realised that after the screening of my film `Black' in Amsterdam. I don't know what it is, but they like it," said Amitabh Bachchan, the IIFA brand-ambassador.

And rolling out the red carpet for the stars, the city of Amsterdam seems to have gone all out to woo Indian fans.

From setting up a wall of fame at the airport that is being designed that will stay forever to getting the Amsterdam's biggest multiplex chain to start showing `desi' films, it seems that the `silsila' with the country is likely only to continue.

While "Black" might have made its presence felt in Amsterdam with the audience moved to tears by Bachchan's performance, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's movie "Parineeta" is now hopefully set to do the same. Being premiered at the IIFA Awards, the movie will also be the first to be released in the Netherlands.