SIFCC to go ahead with boycott of actors participating in IIFA

Mumbai: The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC) today said that it will go ahead with the boycott of Bollywood actors who are participating in the IIFA weekend which begins in Colombo from tomorrow. General Secretary of the Chamber L Suresh told reporters from Chennai that the decision has been taken keeping in mind the local sentiments.

"As per the decision, films featuring the personalities who participated in the IIFA will be not be screened in South India," he said. Suresh, alongwith the President of the Chamber C Kalyan and G Siva, who is the General Secretary of the Film Employees Federation of South India, was in Mumbai three days ago to persuade their counterparts in the city against visiting Sri Lanka for the IIFA weekend. The trio met President of the Film and Television Producers Guild Manmohan Shetty, filmmakers Ramesh Sippy, Yash Chopra and J P Dutta, financer Ratan Jain, officials of the organisers Wizcraft and other members of the Mumbai film industry who are on the IIFA Advisory board. Suresh said the Bollywood bigwigs said they had full sympathy to the condition of Sri Lankan tamils but expressed their inability to shift the venue because "it was too late." "They told us that they were bound by contractual obligations," Suresh said. He said the SIFCC put forth its view before the Bollywood producers, saying that they were not against the event. "Innocent Tamils have been killed and Sri Lankan government is creating an atmosphere that everything is normal. The reality must be shown to the world and this was not the time to do a show like this," Suresh said. He said the decision to go ahead with the boycott was taken in Chennai yesterday after their return from Mumbai. Meanwhile, several Bollywood personalities like Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Boman Irani, Vivek Oberoi, tennis player Mahesh Bhupati have already reached Colombo. IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, who is currently in Gujarat along with his actor son Abhishek and actress daughter-in-law Aishwarya will skip the IIFA weekend. Abhishek is shooting in Istanbul for his film `Game` while Aishwarya is travelling to Paris. Shah Rukh Khan, who was supposed to attend the event, is also not doing so citing his home production `Ra.one`, the shooting of which is currently underway. PTI