IIFA 2010 Awards: Sangakkara and Jayasuria are Bollywood movie buffs

Kumar Sangakkara, current captain of the Sri Lankan Cricket team, opined that the IIFA 2010 Awards, that would be held in Colombo, is a “big opportunity” to promote Sri Lanka in Bollywood and building a better relationship between two countries.

He said to a media, “Bollywood is a great hit in Sri Lanka and all over the world. I think everyone in the world has sat up and taken notice of how big Bollywood is, how attractive it is and how talented the stars are.”

Kumar Sangakkara who is also the captain of Preity Zinta's IPL (IPL) team, Kings XI Punjab, said that Bollywood actors’ presence will create lots of excitement among the people of Sri Lanka.

Sangakkara, who is a wicket keeper and left handed batsman is also a big Bollywood movie fan. He first saw Mani Ratnam’s super hit movie, Bombay, which stars Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala. His other favorite movies are- Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, Monsoon Wedding, Water. Sangakkara likes these films because they carry a message.

Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Sahrukh Khan are the favorite Bollywood actors of Sangakkara. He also likes Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. He also likes Bollywood actresses. Sangakkara would like to see Aishwarya Rai Bachchan perform in IIFA 2010.

The IIFA Awards 2010 will take place in Colombo starting from June 3, 2010 to June 5, 2010. In between, there will be a friendly cricket match between Indian celebrities and Sri Lankan cricketers. The money collected will be used in rehabilitating former LTTE child soldiers. A village for 100 families will be built. The children will be re-educated, rehabilitated.

Sanath Jayasuriya, another Sri Lankan all-rounder cricketer, said, “It's a big opportunity to promote Sri Lanka among the film fraternity here. Sri Lankans are very big fans of Bollywood and the film industry is very popular in Sri Lanka,……Sri Lankans are looking forward to this big event. It's nice for our country and good for the relations between the two countries.”

Jayasuriya saw few Shahrukh Khan movies on local channels. He likes Shahrukh Khan very much and never misses his movies.

Aishwarya Rai will not be attending IIFA 2010 Awards

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan will not be seen at the upcoming IIFA Award 2010 festival. They will be busy with their own works.

Aishwarya Rai returned from Chennai where she was busy shooting her upcoming movie, Robot, with Rajinikanth. Then she would fly to Paris in the first week of June where she would work with “Longines,” the International watch brand. Aishwarya Rai is the brand ambassador of Longines.

On the other hand, her husband, Abhishek Bachchan, will be busy shooting in Istanbul for his upcoming movie, Game.

Abhishek Bachchan’s father, Bollywood legend, Amitabh Bachchan will also not attend the IIFA 2010 for he is getting threats from some Tamil groups who are protesting outside his residence. However, he did not disclose the matter. Amitabh Bachchan remained the brand ambassador of IIFA for ten years.

This year, the IIFA 2010 will take place in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka from June 3 to June 5, 2010.

At Cannes, Aishwarya Rai caught the media’s attention for her fashion wear. Since 2002, Aishwarya Rai has been attending the Cannes film festival on a regular basis as a brand ambassador of L'Oréal.

However, this year was special for her for she also promoted her upcoming movie, Raavan at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Cannes Film Festival 2010 also remains special for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for another reason. News spread out that the former beauty queen got an offer from famous Hollywood director, Matrin Scorsese.

Scorsese and Aishwarya Rai met before attending Cannes. News reports said that she caught the attention of the director at the French Riviera. Mr. Scorsese had been constantly praising Aishwarya and the two talked about movies.

Scorsese also invited Aishwarya at the screening the Italian classic movie II Gattapardo, directed by Lucina Viscomti. This was followed by an exclusive dinner which was attended by only eight guests.