The Indian film industry has invaded the UK's Yorkshire region for the Indian International Film Academy (IIFA) awards, known as the Bollywood Oscars.
The awards themselves will be given out Saturday night in Sheffield, but related events started Thursday and run during the four-day event in Leeds, Hull, Bradford and York.
Yesterday's Global Business Forum, organized with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, included the signing of a memorandum of understanding with development agency Yorkshire Forward to further trade relations for the next three years. The entertainment panel at the Forum included Ingenious' Parminder Vir, Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Timmy Kandhari, Eros' Kishore Lulla, UTV's Ronnie Screwvalla, UFO's Raaja Kanwar, Screen Yorkshire's Tony Parker, and the UK Film Council's Clare Wise.
Today's events also include a BAFTA workshop devoted to the work of Satyajit Ray with a panel including directors Rituparno Ghosh and Deepa Mehta; Shilpa Shetty's birthday party and IIFA celebrity cricket match.
The IIFA Film Festival is hosting 25 films including UK premieres of The Colour Of Sacrifice and Dosar.
Other top names in attendance for the festivities include Salman Khan, Randhir & Randeer Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, and Ramesh Sippy
Part of today's programme was a lunch hosted by regional screen agency Screen Yorkshire for more than 50 producers, location managers and entertainment executives from India and Yorkshire.
Sally Joynson, chief executive of Screen Yorkshire, said: 'The IIFA awards have given us a great opportunity here in Yorkshire to showcase the region to the Indian film industry and show them what we've got We really do have a county where Indian Producers could do business.'
Mukesh Bhatt, an Indian producer of more than 40 films, added: 'Many Indian film producers are not aware of what Yorkshire has to offer as a filming location so today has been incredibly beneficial for them. They've had a sample of the many beautiful locations Yorkshire has and been able to talk business with the key players in the Yorkshire industry. I think this will be the start of many joint Indian and Yorkshire film productions.'
Yorkshire previously hosted shoots for Indian films Harry Putter, Natasha and Provoked, and has been confirmed to host one upcoming shoot: Talking Lense's Quick Slip Me A Bride.
Business development agency Yorkshire Forward estimated that tourism spending related to the IIFAs would bring in nearly $20m to the region and that 30,000 overseas visitors would come to the region for the four-day festivities.
The awards themselves will be given out Saturday night in Sheffield, but related events started Thursday and run during the four-day event in Leeds, Hull, Bradford and York.
Yesterday's Global Business Forum, organized with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, included the signing of a memorandum of understanding with development agency Yorkshire Forward to further trade relations for the next three years. The entertainment panel at the Forum included Ingenious' Parminder Vir, Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Timmy Kandhari, Eros' Kishore Lulla, UTV's Ronnie Screwvalla, UFO's Raaja Kanwar, Screen Yorkshire's Tony Parker, and the UK Film Council's Clare Wise.
Today's events also include a BAFTA workshop devoted to the work of Satyajit Ray with a panel including directors Rituparno Ghosh and Deepa Mehta; Shilpa Shetty's birthday party and IIFA celebrity cricket match.
The IIFA Film Festival is hosting 25 films including UK premieres of The Colour Of Sacrifice and Dosar.
Other top names in attendance for the festivities include Salman Khan, Randhir & Randeer Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, and Ramesh Sippy
Part of today's programme was a lunch hosted by regional screen agency Screen Yorkshire for more than 50 producers, location managers and entertainment executives from India and Yorkshire.
Sally Joynson, chief executive of Screen Yorkshire, said: 'The IIFA awards have given us a great opportunity here in Yorkshire to showcase the region to the Indian film industry and show them what we've got We really do have a county where Indian Producers could do business.'
Mukesh Bhatt, an Indian producer of more than 40 films, added: 'Many Indian film producers are not aware of what Yorkshire has to offer as a filming location so today has been incredibly beneficial for them. They've had a sample of the many beautiful locations Yorkshire has and been able to talk business with the key players in the Yorkshire industry. I think this will be the start of many joint Indian and Yorkshire film productions.'
Yorkshire previously hosted shoots for Indian films Harry Putter, Natasha and Provoked, and has been confirmed to host one upcoming shoot: Talking Lense's Quick Slip Me A Bride.
Business development agency Yorkshire Forward estimated that tourism spending related to the IIFAs would bring in nearly $20m to the region and that 30,000 overseas visitors would come to the region for the four-day festivities.
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