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While the country booed and ridiculed the voter turnout in Mumbai, many Bollywood celebrities were missing in action as well. The reason - the International Indian Film Awards (IIFA) that are being held in Tampa Bay, USA on April 26.
IIFA has in the past attracted Bollywood and sees a strong participation from the fraternity. This time around however, the timing clashed with the general elections and many actors, it seems, preferred to prepare for the awards show in the US, rather than exercise their right to vote in what is one of the most followed elections in India's history.
Those who missed the voting in Mumbai include Shahid Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Malaika Arora Khan, Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. While some of these celebrities are expected to perform at the IIFA this year, others will be attending it as audience or nominees. Actor Anupam Kher had a talk scheduled at the IIFA conference yesterday.
A professional in the celebrity management industry said, "While it is compltely their decision what to do and which event to attend, you cannot deny that the money riding on these evens is pretty big."
While exact figures are not known, the average fees for performances at such shows ranges from Rs 50 lakh for newcomers to up to Rs 4 crore for the A-listers.
This, however, did not deter some of the biggest names in Bollywood from staying back and voting. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwariya Bachchan, Amir Khan, Milind Soman, Sonam Kapoor, Hema Malini, lyricist Gulzar and many others from the industry (many of whom are regulars at awards functions as well) came out and cast their respective votes.
Another celebrity manager felt that Bollywood celebrities were being singled out. "Leave alone ahandful of celebrities from Bollywood. Why is no questioning that a good chunk of Indian cricketers, including the entire national team and many first class players, are in the Gulf playing the IPL?" heasked.
