IIFA unsuccessful Rs. 450 million wasted

A senior government minister said that the IIFA awards held in Sri Lanka with the Sri Lankan government spending Rs. 450 million and the Indians spending Rs. 200 million has been a complete waste.

He said that several Indian artistes had told him that the ceremony in Colombo was the most unsuccessful IIFA awards to be held since its inception. 

According to the Minister, although the government initially estimated the arrival of about 3,000 Indians to participate in the awards ceremony, only about 200 Indians had arrived in the country for the event.

In the face of a massive protest campaign carried out by members of the film industry in Tamil Nadu, Indian stars like Amithab Bachchan, Shah 

  Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Ameer Khan, Katrina Kaif and Oscar award winning song writer and composer A.R. Rahman decided to boycott the event.

Kamal Hassen, Rajini Kanth, Vijaya, Soorya, Mani Ratnam and other South Indian stars also boycotted the event.

Apart from the IIFA awards aimed promoting Sri Lankan tourism, a conference of business delegates was also organized simultaneously. The business confab had also been a failure.