Indian film festival brings Bollywood to the UK

For four days this summer, five Yorkshire cities – Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and York – will host a colourful extravaganza to celebrate the best of Indian cinema, fashion, food and culture.

The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend 2007 is expected to attract nearly 30,000 visitors to the region – particularly from Europe, India, South-East Asia and the US – and generate nearly £10 million in tourist spending for the local economy.

Festival of Indian culture

Celebrations begin on 7 June, with the world premiere of the year’s biggest Bollywood epic, The Train, followed by a celebrity cricket match and the weekend’s main attraction, the IDEA IIFA Awards ceremony, which will be beamed to audiences around the world from Sheffield’s Hallam FM arena.

Overseas filming

But there is also a more serious side to the event.

The UK is the second-largest market in the world for Indian cinema.

Sabbas Joseph,

Director,

The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA)

India’s film industry is the largest in the world, producing over 1,000 films annually.

By 2008, it is expected to gross £1.1 billion.

More importantly, over 50 per cent of each major film is shot in an overseas location – amounting to around £60 million overseas expenditure every year.

As a result, the event offers the opportunity to showcase potential film settings in Yorkshire, and secure future film contracts and the high levels of post-production work that spring from them.

“The UK is the second-largest market in the world for Indian cinema, and Yorkshire is already well known for its locations and the many films that are shot here. It also offers a multicultural mix of people, so it’s a perfect setting for the event,” explains Sabbas Joseph, director of the IIFA.

Business opportunities

However, the focus is not just on film.

The IIFA Weekend is in its seventh year, and the annual choice of location is based on strategic business reasons.

“India is the second largest overseas investor in UK business, but there is almost no direct investment in Yorkshire.

“So we purposely chose the region for the opportunities it will give Indian companies to build relationships with – and invest in – regional businesses, and vice versa,” explains Joseph.

Yorkshire was selected as this year’s location following a successful bid from the Yorkshire Tourist Board, with the support of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and local business partners.

Indo-UK partnership

As a result, the IIFA Global Business Forum will run alongside the more informal celebrations of Indian culture. Indian companies from a range of sectors will be represented, including healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, clean fuels, IT and telecoms.

The Forum will feature keynotes from a spectrum of leading UK and Indian business figures, including Sir Martin Sorrell, chairman of UK advertising giant WPP; Lord Karan Billimoria, chief executive officer of Cobra Beer; and, Kishore Lulla, chief executive of media company Eros International.

“The Global Business Forum aims to build Indo-UK partnerships, particularly in the Yorkshire region.

“The aim is to forge business relationships for the future,” says Joseph.