‘Foreign Locations In Movies Promote Global Unity—Badly Needed In Today’s Times’, Says Zoya Akhtar At IIFTC Event 

Chaitanya  Padukone

Despite the ongoing global scare and panic of the deadly corona-virus the opening gala night of Asia’s largest film tourism event –8^th  edition of India International Film Tourism (IIFTC) three-day Conclave  organised by founder-director Harshad Bhagwat was a super-success with  80 plus foreign delegates who had specially come from over 25 overseas countries. The dynamic Harshad Bhagwat  is also the pioneering Editor of ‘CinePort’ magazine. The latest edition of which was unveiled at this event by the celeb-award-winners . Cult filmmaker, Zoya Akhtar who was honored by His Worship, Naheed Nenshi - Mayor of Calgary (Canada) with the IIFTC Tourism Impact Award 2020 . This was for Zoya’s phenomenal contribution to promoting foreign locations tourism thru her  Bollywood movies like ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ and ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’.  In her acceptance speech, the grateful, zestful Zoya said, “ I love travelling and making movies and I  feel I am blessed to be able to ‘marry’ them together. Besides entertaining, I really believe that movies are ambassadors of foreign culture and locations as they transport you across the globe even as you fall in love with faraway lands. Films shot abroad soften the borders and bring people and countries together. The whole world needs that now,” she said amid thundering applause revealing later that Mexico is on her wish-list.   Another big winner of the IIFTC Award-2020 was, ‘showman’ Tamil Director, K. S. Ravikumar ( also an actor)  who in his career spanning over 30 years has directed over 45 films with starring Southside mega stars including Sarathkumar, Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth.  “Shooting on overseas locations, has budget-friendly advantages including having to take very less crew members with the star-cast fully dedicated to your movie and giving the audiences a visual breath-taking delight,” shared Ravikumar.  Among the glam scene-stealers at the glittering event held at the opulent Leela hotel, were model-actress celebs like Musskan Sethi, Ananya Sengupta, Eshika Dey ( of ‘Sacred Games’), and Disha Yadav. Also adding his macho-allure to the event was entrepreneur-actor Krishna Kotian. Interestingly several first-time visiting foreign delegates including those from Poland and from exotic Baku-Azerbaijaan madame Jamila Gahramanova  were fascinated with Indian culture and the warm IIFTC  hospitality. The evening also saw awards for Cinematic Excellence being presented to the makers of Professor Shanku O El Dorado (Bengali), And the Oscar Goes To(Malayalam), Amar (Kannada), Dev (Tamil), Mannadhudu 2 (Telugu), War (Hindi)—collected by Rishabh Chopra ( from YRF) and Badla (Hindi) --for showcasing global locations as diverse as from Brazil to Portugal to Switzerland to Ukraine to Indian audiences.  The enthusiastic participation at IIFTC -2020 from foreign countries included  Mauritius, Canada, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Canada, Portugal, Fiji, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Kenya, UK, Poland, Iceland, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Ras Al Khaimah, Czech Republic to name a few.

Ananya Sengupta

Musskan Sethi

Zoya Akhtar

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Zoya Akhtar