Bollywood stars who missed vote say were committed to IIFA

Many Bollywood celebrities like Anil Kapoor and Shabana Azmi who could not cast their ballot as they were here to attend the IIFA said it was "unfortunate" not to be able to vote but their commitment to the film awards was made much in advance.
It was an important day back home in Mumbai as it was election day in the city, but a host of Bollywood celebrities chose to attend the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards here than casting their vote.
The IIFA Awards 2014 are being held in Tampa Bay, Florida and it will be a four-day-long extravaganza between April 23 to April 26.

Those who chose to fulfill their commitment at IIFA than cast their vote included Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhar, Anil Kapoor, Rajkumar Hirani, Nawazuddin Siddqui, Sonakshi Sinha and Nikhil Dwivedi among others.
The Mijwan fashion show was slated to be held here later. Mijwan is an NGO which supports welfare of girl child and it is headed by Shabana Azmi.
"I have always endorsed voting and standing up for rights. But I had committed to attending IIFA months in advance when the election dates weren't even announced," Shabana said.

"I support an NGO Mijwan that works for the welfare of girl child. Manish Malhotra and Mijwan have worked hard to put up the show. I couldn't have let then down," she said.

Shabana was accompanied by Javed Akhtar and he too did not vote.
"It is terrible. But we had made this commitment for Mijwan much before in advance. Mijwan is not a personal commitment it is about so many women, girls in village, they will get benefited and get a new market," Javed said.
"We had a choice that either we vote and stay back which is precious right. We had made this commitment to be here six months back," the noted lyricist and writer said.
"It would be like disappointing so many poor girls and women because they are thinking this show will benefit them. It was a bad choice either ways," he said.

However, his actor-filmmaker son Farhan Akhtar stayed back to cast his vote before leaving for Tampa Bay.
"If given a chance we would have also voted and come," Jawed said.
Meanwhile, noted actor Anupam Kher's short film 'I Went Shopping for Robert De Niro' was premiered today on the second day of IIFA.
"I think the present government failed on most of the things, corruption happened directly or indirectly. I would definitely need a change in the political system. We badly need a change now. We need a stable and strong government. I would urge everyone to vote," Kher told PTI.