Here's Why We Are Not Enthusiastic About IIFA 2018 At All

The International Indian Film Academy will hold its 19th edition from 22nd to 24th June 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. Every year, the IIFA Awards are held at a foreign destination in order to take the Indian Cinema to the worldwide audience. IIFA has branched itself to the South Cinema as well with IIFA Utsavam being held on an annual basis now since 2016.

Though it was announced with much fanfare back in the day and at one time, Amitabh Bachchan was the brand ambassador, IIFA has been losing steam for some years now. It's not just IIFA but almost all the awards which exist in India right now are now treated the same way due to the notoriety these shows have attained ever since celebs started confessing that everything is predecided and you can purchase an award.

The integrity of Award shows has taken a severe hit as almost all the big names of Bollywood have called these ceremonies as a big joke and a free vacation package. Akshay Kumar famously said that he was promised an award just for showing up while SRK and Rishi Kapoor have confessed to purchasing Awards. Here are a few reasons why the IIFA is losing its steam:

A Platform for Nepotism

If you remember from last year's IIFA, industry kids Kara Johar, Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan took a wait for it...humorous and highly funny take on Kangana's nepotism comment. Obviously, they only did it because Kangana wasn't there but the way in which 3 prominent names from the industry who have a strong hold over the audiences and influence millions of people, targeting one person who was plainly sharing her views (and was correct), just to glorify their massive egos, is not correct. 

The Choices

Now that the Award shows are in a bad light thanks to the industry insiders themselves confession to having brought the awards for a few lakhs rupees and being offered an award simply to show up or denied once they were late for their performance, every year we see a few celebs who otherwise don't appear in movies much or not so big names promoting IIfA who we wonder if are the right choice to promote Indian Cinema globally. 

Free Luxury

A number of celebs have also said that sometimes they just attend these shows as they are luxurious vacations they don't want to say no to. The gift bags, private luxury cars, stay at 7 stars and then getting paid to make an appearance for a few minutes is probably the easiest money earned. 

Where are the biggies?

Now, if you want to take the Indian Cinema globally and are pretty damn sure about achieving your vision and mission, we wonder why the triumvirate of the Khans is nowhere to be seen near IIFA. This year too, Salman Khan will be off to his Dabangg tour while SRK and Aamir won't be attending. SRK and Salman only attend at their convenience while Amitabh Bachchan is rarely seen after he was removed as the brand ambassador. 

Not much in terms of engagement

The award ceremony is pretty generic, just like any other Bollywood award ceremony and offers nothing new in terms of engagement which the foreign audiences can lap up and become a bonafide fan of Bollywood fans.

Lack of female host? 

Now, we know that the industry is male dominated but it seems just stupid that the IIFA organisers couldn't find a female host since 2010 when Lara Dutta was a co-host. We are tired of seeing Karan Johar as the host along with disposable co-hosts and probably the organisers should include a female host as well. It would be good to display the gender equality on an international stage or so is claimed!