IFFI goes glam

The 37 th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), to be held in Goa between November 23 - December 1, is aiming for a massive reach. It’s a bid to break away from the ‘arty’ mould. And what better way than to throw in a dash of Bollywood glamour? Very soon a video featuring actors Jimmy Sheirgill, Amrita Arora, Riya Sen and Sohail Khan will be aired with them urging audiences across the globe to be a part of IFFI.  

Riya says, “This is a promotional campaign for IFFI which we shot in two days.  It didn’t feel like work because we were jet skiing, playing volley ball and paragliding. I know Jimmy, Amrita and Sohail very well.” She adds, “Amrita and I thought, ‘Why not give it a try?’ Eventually it turned out to be so much fun. We even asked the organisers to let us be part of such a video again.”

Jimmy shares, “I was shooting for ‘Delhi Heights’ in Goa. When I was told that this was to promote our cinema, I was more than happy to be part of it.”     

Amrita adds, “They wanted to capture the real Goa with the stars. I thought this was a very cute concept. We shot the ad in two days flat and had a blast.”

Explaining the rationale of shooting the video, Nandini Paliwal, CEO of the Entertainment Society of Goa, which facilitates IFFI for the state government says, “The idea of shooting this promotional video was to air it across channels both in India and abroad and invite people to be a part of it. We roped in film stars to communicate this message as they have a bigger reach.”

r_faheem@dnaindia.net