Tamil protests keep celebs away from IIFA

The organisers of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards could be ruing their decision to hold the ceremony in the Sri Lankan capital this year.

Little did they imagine that the island’s Sinhala vs Tamil issue would suck Bollywood into its vortex.

Because of strong protests by Tamil groups against IIFA holding the ceremony in Colombo, the top actors of tinsel town have cited prior commitments to give the occasion a miss.

IIFA’s brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan, will not attend the function. His son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya are tied up with the promotional activity of their forthcoming film Raavan. The absence of the Bachchans will be significant given that IIFA has been viewed as their ‘family affair’ for years. DNA sent the senior Bachchan an SMS for comment, but he did not respond.

Others likely to be absent are Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, and Imran Khan. Aamir Khan, as usual, will not attend.

Shah Rukh tweeted: “I don’t think I will be able to come for IIFA…too much work here, will miss Colombo.”

Tamil film personalities such as Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam, Vijay, Ajit and Surya will be keeping away from Colombo.

While many have genuine work compulsions, sources, however, have indicated that a few of the actors fear they would lose out on popularity in film-crazy Tamil Nadu (TN) by attending the event.

At the forefront of the protests against the hosting of IIFA in Colombo have been the recently-found groups Naam Tamilar (which staged a demonstration in front of Amitabh Bachchan’s bungalow and Salman Khan’s house) and Iyakkam (meaning ‘movement’), and the Vaiko-led party MDMK. The main TN parties, DMK and ADMK, have not expressed their stand on the issue.

Iyakkam staged a demonstration in front of Kamal Hassan’s house, asking him to resign as chairman of Ficci’s Media & Entertainment Business Conclave. This, despite the actor saying he had no intention of going to Sri Lanka.

“The event was earlier scheduled to be held in Seoul in South Korea. We do not know why it was shifted to Sri Lanka. But we are sure the event would not have been shifted without Ficci or Kamal Hassan knowing it,” Iyakkam’s Thirumurugan Gandhi told DNA. “We strongly object to Ficci describing Sri Lanka as New Sri Lanka, when international human rights forums have accused the Lankan government of war crimes.”