BANGKOK (AFP) — Hundreds of Indian stars prepared to sparkle Sunday at the "Bollywood Oscars," a glitzy awards ceremony expected to attract 600 million television viewers.
The gala event launched by the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) just eight years ago has become one of the biggest dates in the film industry calendar.
Celebrations began Friday with the premier of "Sarkar Raj" (Absolute Ruler), featuring newly-wed superstars Abhishek Bachchan and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, performing with his father Amitabh Bachchan.
The celebrity couple are up for Best Male and Best Female awards on Sunday for their roles in "Guru" -- a rags-to-riches story of an Indian businessman.
Vying for the coveted Best Picture award are "Guru," "Chak De India," "Jab We Met," "Om Shanti Om," "Life in a Metro" or "Partner."
At least 500 Bollywood names -- including Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Govinda -- have arrived in Bangkok to promote their unique brand of film-making outside India.
Bollywood is a novelty in Thailand, but police struggled to control huge crowds who turned up in force to see the stars attend the "Sarkar Raj" preview Friday.
The political thriller highlights the kind of movie that IIFA wants to show the world -- an Indian film with an international sensibility that goes beyond the traditional song-and-dance format.
The movie is a sequel to the 2005 film "Sarkar," considered a homage to the American classic "The Godfather," and is loosely based on the controversy around an Enron power plant built in India a decade ago.
Other stereotype-busting films previewed in the run-up to the awards included the sci-fi flick "Love Story 2050" and the action-packed thriller "Mission Istaanbul."
But filmmakers say Indian movies are not leaving music behind.
Although India is the world's biggest film-going nation, cinema tickets sell for a pittance and moviemakers need spin-off music revenue to offset production costs.
"Music is an integral part of it," said "Mission" director Apoorva Lakhia.
"We like our heroes or our action heroes to cry and dance. It's part of our culture and I think music is very important because it's a huge revenue as far as making the money back," he told AFP.
The Indian film industry was valued at 2.2 billion dollars last year, just a fraction of what Hollywood earns in a year, but organisers say that IIFA will help expand audiences around the globe.
They note that in the six months after the first awards show in London, Hindi cinema ticket sales grew 35 percent in Britain.
The gala itself has criss-crossed the planet since the inaugural ceremony in London, heading in past years to Amsterdam, South Africa's Sun City and Yorkshire in Britain.
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