Indian awards ceremony in Colombo a total flop

by Satheesan Kumaaran

(June 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka flexed their diplomatic and political muscle over India to hold the 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards in Colombo from June 3rd. The Festival ended on the 6th with disappointing results. Sri Lanka was keen to hold the event as it concluded the first anniversary of winning the Tamil Tigers in Vanni in May 2009. Tamil Diaspora and Tamils numbering over 75 million across India staged a vehement protest, resulting in a huge impact in making the event a total flop.

This is the 11th IIFA annual awards ceremony to promote Bollywood. The IIFA Awards are watched by over half a billion TV viewers in over 100 countries. This time Bollywood faced an acid test. They never realized that they would face a real challenge from their South Indian counterparts.

When Amitabh Bachchan, the outstanding superstar in Bollywood who is in charge of promoting the event, travelled to Colombo in March, he announced that the IIFA event will take place in Colombo starting June 3rd. Since then, the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu politicians took up arms against Bollywood. Followed by their protest, Tamil Nadu cinema leading actors such as Rajanikanth, Kamalhasan, and others came in support, boycotting the event, saying they would not participate in a country where the Tamils were massacred by the government armed forces.

Sri Lanka’s actions regrettable

Upon the continuous protests from politicians and cinema actors, the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) organized a meeting and called upon all the South Indian actors and actresses to boycott the event, as it took place in Colombo just to seek legitimacy for the Sri Lankan government who is finally in control after their ethnic cleansing of Tamils in the last phase of the Eelam War IV.

The FEFSI joined forces with the politicians and actors, and even the Mumbai-based Bollywood boycotted the event. They warned that if any actors attended the film festival, the movies would be banned through South. The FEFSI went on to say that even should any cinema industry actors, directors, or producers make movies in Sri Lanka, those movies will not be screened throughout South India unless the Sri Lankan war criminals are put in trial with international investigations.

In a historic move, the South Indian cinema industry supported Eelam Tamils as never before. Cinema is one of the most influential media in India, receiving a wide audience from all sectors of lives including people who beg on the streets to people who are billionaires.

Sri Lanka worked hard to make the event a success so it can show the world that Sri Lanka is a safe haven after the war with the LTTE. Film festival success meant that Sri Lanka could lure foreign businesses and grow a booming tourist industry. However, the cinema’s industry boycott in South India shows that Sri Lanka cannot be forgiven by the over 80 million Tamils world-wide and their supporters.

The South Indian film industry clearly stated that they are not against the IIFA, but they are against the venue, as Sri Lankan leaders are facing international war crimes probes. Even the United Nations has blamed the Sri Lankan government for their actions. The UN wanted accountability for what happened to the civilians who died in the thousands within a matter of weeks after kicking out the UN agencies and media. The LTTE ultimately had to silence their guns in order to safeguard the civilians. If the LTTE continuously fought with the government forces, the casualty figure would have risen to an unprecedented number. The actions carried out by the government was not acceptable and further, the government, which is now failing to take responsibility for their actions, continues blundering with their own agenda. In this context, Sri Lanka’s actions are regrettable by any human being and obviously it would be pity if the Dravidians, including Tamils who share culture, history, and language with the Tamils in Sri Lanka, do not come in support of their counterparts in Sri Lanka. This is the sentiment that the South Indian film industry justly showed, and it has a very valid reason.

High price paid for nothing

Bollywood and the major Indian trade unions, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), were joining hands with Sri Lankan government to make this event a success. The flagship organiser of the business event was the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum. Hundreds of Indian CEOs and business heads and the cinema industry travelled to Sri Lanka to take part in the IIFA event. The Indian businessmen were also scheduled to sign business deals with Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government invested 9 million USD for the success of the event while the FICCI – IIFA Global Business Forum promised the Sri Lankan government that the event would earn over 126 million USD, which would be handed over to the Sri Lankan government. But, due to the boycott of the South Indian film industry, the leading Bollywood actors and actresses did not show. Only second level Bollywood actors and actress, along with technicians from Mumbai, made an appearance. Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Vivek Oberoi, Lara Dutta, Boman Irani, Ritesh Deshmukh, Dia Mirza, Zarine Khan, Sharman Joshi, and Jenaliya were among the Bollywood actors and actresses who took part in the event despite heavy protest from South Indian film industry and politicians.

The Sri Lankan government leaders were frustrated about the boycott. The South Indian film industry followed through on their promise and released all the actors and actresses who participated in the event from their committed movies. For example, actress Jenaliya, who attended the event, is being removed from Vijay’s next film “Vellayutham”. Though the question is, how long the ban for these actors and actresses will be in force? Or it is a permanent ban? The answers to these questions should be firm. That would be the only way the South Indian film industry’s actions will be kept respectful and that would really show solidarity with the Tamils throughout the world who are still grieving over what happened to their relatives in the last phase of war.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa flip-flopped, saying that he was not really committed to attend the event. It is a reliable fact that Rajapaksa, along with his wife, promised to attend in order to hand out the awards. Their no-show disappointed a lot of the audience. Local media also maintained that Rajapaksa did not attend the event because the majority of the Bollywood stars did not make an appearance at a brunch hosted by him on Saturday morning. The President’s Secretariat insisted that he was never scheduled to attend the event.

Even some Sinhala artistes complained they were sincerely hurt and angry at the way the organisers treated members of the Sri Lankan Film and Art industry by giving top priority to the Indian artistes. A local actor and former MP, Ravindra Randeniya, said that the invitations to local media personalities were sent to the local artistes in an insulting manner. Sri Lanka paid a high price for the event as well as the FICCI – IIFA Global Business Forum. The Indian artists who took part will have to suffer due to the ban in the South for their upcoming movies and some of them will definitely face problems in upcoming roles in South Indian films.

The 11th IIFA awards ceremony is a total failure and this shows that humanity never dies. However, it is sad that the ones who participated came forth heavily against the ones who did not take part in the event. The artists even advocated through public speeches that all the cinema industry in India should come forth to help the friendly neighbour Sri Lanka. This shows that the cinema artists who aspire to dominate in politics try to make friends abroad for their own survival in the deaths of innocent civilians. It is, however, obvious that even their ghosts would not pardon these artists for supporting State terrorists. It is the aspiration of the Tamils worldwide that the South Indian film industry should stand behind the Eelam Tamils until they receive justice.

(The author can be reached at e-mail: satheesan_kumaaran@yahoo.com)