Protests against Indian film icon Amitabh Bachchan's recent visit to Sri Lanka have not deterred either Indian or Sri Lankan organisers from preparing for this year's International Indian Film Academy (IFFA) awards ceremony in Colombo next month.
Indian organisers told the Sunday Times that Mr. Bachchan would be attending the event as planned.
On April 25, five days after Mr. Bachchan's visit to Colombo to announce that Sri Lanka would host the decade-old glitzy Bollywood fair this year, Tamil groups protested outside his two houses in Mumbai, petitioning him not to attend the upcoming event. C Rajendran, a representative of the protestors told the Indian media there that they "urged Mr. Bachchan not to attend the function in Colombo as a symbol of solidarity for the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka."
The following day, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), a Toronto-based Tamil organization, said in a statement that Mr. Bachchan
was a "big hero for the Tamil diaspora" but it was "very disturbed and profoundly saddened" by his visit to a country where the regime had perpetrated crimes against Tamils.Canada is home to a large number of Tamils from Sri Lanka.
"We are going ahead full steam with IFFA. Our commitment is to all communities in Sri Lanka," IFFA director Sabbas Joseph told the Sunday Times over telephone yesterday. Mr. Joseph is one of the directors of the Mumbai-based events management company Wizcraft that organises the annual event overseas.
Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Board (SLTPB) Managing Director Dileep Mudadeniya said, "We are going ahead with preparations. We have not pressed any panic buttons." He said the protests had anyway taken place in India and Canada and therefore did not affect his schedule here.
According to Mr. Mudadeniya, all government agencies were working to prepare Colombo for the Bollywood blitz. The SLTPB is assisting Wizcraft in organising the 11th IFFA at the Sugatadasa Stadium in Colombo from June 3 to 5.
When asked if Mr Bachchan's participation in the IFFA event had been confirmed in the wake of last week's protests, Mr. Mudadeniya said that Wizcraft was dealing with organisational matters of the event and therefore he could not comment on it.
Mr. Bachchan had written about the protests in his blog dated April 25. "A Tamil group picketed my houses this morning, asking me to not conduct IFFA in Sri Lanka!! I beckoned personnel from Wiz (Wizcraft) who own and conduct IFFA to come and meet me to discuss this matter and give it due importance.
I believe Wizcraft personnel met representatives of this protest presentation along with the police personnel that came over from the Juhu police station (his neighbourhood police station), heard what they had to say, accepted a petition given by them, explained to them their (Wizcraft's) side of the story and told them that the governing body of the event would meet immediately to conference on this matter and reach some kind of final path and solution. Sentiments of all must be respected and I hope that we can plan and execute that with understanding peace and grace."
Mr. Bachchan visited Colombo on April 20 to announce the event, as brand ambassador of IFFA. The same evening, he met President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family and discussed cricket and current affairs. It was Mr. Bachchan's second visit to the island. The first was prior to 1999 when he had been here to shoot for a Hindi film called Sooryavansham which had him in dual role against the backdrop of a feudal Indian village. Following his disastrous stint in Indian politics in the late 1980s, Mr. Bachchan has maintained that he wants to remain "apolitical."
With Bollywood music and dance shows, film premiers and workshops and presentation of awards, the IFFA event is now worth $56 million, watched by 600 million people on TV, according to Wizcraft officials. Last year, it was held in Macau. |
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