Celebrities and dignitaries from India and the United States will come to Florida this week for the “Bollywood Oscars,” an awards event making its first-ever U.S. stop with the aim of creating deeper ties between the two countries.
The International Indian Film Academy’s awards show has an expected worldwide viewership of 800 million people
The film academy’s choice of Tampa, home to Florida’s third-largest South Asian community, to host its first U.S.-based awards show in the event’s 15-year history came as a happy surprise to many fans.
Other celebrities taking part in the event include American actors John Travolta and Kevin Spacey as well as India’s Anil Kapoor, best known to U.S. audiences for his 2008 role in “Slumdog Millionaire,” and Shah Rukh Khan, an actor who has more than 7.4 million followers on Twitter.
