LONDON: Indian superstars including Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai are bringing Bollywood glitz to the gritty north of England as they arrive Wednesday for a major film awards ceremony.

The International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFAs), which run from June 6 to 10, are known as the Bollywood Oscars and will likely be watched on television by some 500 million people around the world.

The awards are held abroad to raise the profile of Hindi film internationally. Previous venues have included Amsterdam and Dubai.

As well as Amitabh "Big B" Bachchan and his son and daughter-in-law, ex-Miss World Rai, other stars appearing include Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty, a household name in Britain after this year's reality TV race row.

But it is thought that Shah Rukh Khan, dubbed "King Khan," will not attend, amid reports of a rumbling row with the Bachchans, despite being scheduled to appear in London on Thursday for a charity auction.

The highlight will be the awards ceremony in Sheffield late Saturday plus a cricket match featuring some of the stars. About 30,000 overseas visitors are expected to pour into Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, York and Hull for the events.

The choice of the county of Yorkshire, an area built on heavy industry such as mining, to host the event has raised some eyebrows, but there are several reasons why the IIFAs have come to the relatively unglamorous location.

Yorkshire has the third highest population of Asians and British Asians in Britain – according to the 2001 census, some 200,000 of the group's overall population of 2.3 million lives in the area.

In addition, Britain's tourist board has recently launched a drive to attract more visitors from India and wants to associate itself more closely with Bollywood movies.

"Some 23 million Indians go to see a film every day and you only have to look at the figures to see that more and more of them are being inspired to visit Britain," said Tom Wright, chief executive of VisitBritain.

Movies such as "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" and "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" feature scenes shot in Britain and Wright added that this link "can only help us raise our profile among this growing audience."

Britain is now the second-biggest market for Bollywood films anywhere in world – in 2005, the British and Irish box office take was 12.4 million pounds (18.2 million euros, 24.7 million dollars).

The event also allows the Bollywood film industry to reach out to a wider audience – despite the fevered interest in India, its international success has been modest.

Estimated global revenues for 2002 were one percent of Hollywood's and only three Bollywood films have ever been shortlisted for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards – "Lagaan" (2001), "Salaam Bombay!" (1988) and "Mother India" (1957).

In February, leading actor-director Naseeruddin Shah told BBC radio that Bollywood films did not match the quality of those from other countries such as Iran, Korea or Mexico.

"These countries are producing the most incredible movies and we are still plodding on with our boy-meets-girl, safe, old formula," he said.

"That is the reason I think our films aren't taken seriously."


- AFP/so