BOLLYWOOD AWARDS --“UNITED NATIONS OF ENTERTAINMENT” TO UNITE NATIONS WITH ARY DIGITAL TV IN A JOURNEY TO UNITY.

 ANOTHER FIRST BY THE BOLLYWOOD GROUP

 

The Bollywood Group, which is known to bring you innovative and memory-making events in the world of entertainment, has created history again through the first business collaboration of its kind, two media giants coming together with global vision and the future in mind. 

The mega ARY Digital TV conglomerate has acquired the global telecast rights for the fourth Kingfisher Bollywood Awards and the sixth International prestigious Bollywood Movie Awards.

 

The Bollywood Awards and the Kingfisher Bollywood Fashion Awards are organized by South Asians living in America to honor movie and fashion artists for outstanding performances during the prior year.  Over 270 million people in over 90 countries around the globe will witness the much-awaited annual event on television.

 

The Kingfisher Bollywood Fashion Awards and the Bollywood Movie Awards will be held on Friday, April 30^th and Saturday, May 1st 2004 at the “XANADU’ and the “MARK. G. ETESS”  Arena respectively, in the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

 

Mr. Kamal Dandona, Chairman of the Bollywood Group of Companies, and Mr.Salman Iqbal, President and CEO of ARY Digital Network, who have long shared common views and goals, have joined forces to bring you the first colossal Indo-Pak event outside of India.  Through this event, they envision building a bridge for cultural exchange to eliminate the geographical barriers and boundaries via media, events, and entertainment.

 

Mr. Kamal Dandona adds, ”Our pioneering vision of spreading goodwill through entertainment goes back to the days when we started our awards in 1999. It was in that spirit that we had Michael Jackson from America, Bollywood film-stars from India like Shah Rukh Khan, Junoon from Pakistan, Runa Laila from Bangladesh, Apache Indian from U.K., Bali Brahmbhatt from Africa, 8-time Grammy Award winner and legendary American Jose Feliciano from Puerto Rico participating at the first awards event.  We were also the first – and I stress first - in the world to start an award event outside of India.  After our success, many others have tried to create a similar concept, but we still remain the forerunners.” We are known as the “United Nations of Entertainment” because we bring artists from every corner of the world—South East Asia, Far East, North America, South America, Europe, The Caribbean, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the South Pacific.”

 

“We are proud to be a part of these awards which will further our commitment in providing quality television entertainment to viewers all over the world; special shows such as these, will complement the popular sitcoms, serials and highly interactive lifestyle / music programs, talk shows, religious programs, and top notch ICC cricketing action on ARY Digital,” said Mr. Salman Iqbal, President and CEO of ARY Digital Network.  He added, “As a network which has spanned into over 130 countries globally, we are building bridges for cultural exchange and eliminating geographical distances and boundaries through television.”

 

ARY Digital will also be hosting and telecasting the coveted Bollywood Music Awards in the city of Dubai at the end of this year. This mega event will bring together over a dozen performances from artists from India, Pakistan and two pop and rock legends from the US and UK.

 

The Bollywood Group of Companies has perpetually broken new ground and created new traditions in the world of Asian media by pioneering the following “firsts”:

 

1. The FIRST award event exclusively for Bollywood stars held outside of India.

2. The FIRST fashion award event in the world for Indian models/designers.
3. The FIRST award event to combine performers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, the Middle East, and America under one roof.
4. The FIRST Bollywood event to consistently have the presence of mainstream celebrities.
5. The FIRST South Asian company to have a mainstream Hollywood star, namely Steven Seagal, on its Board of Directors.
6. The FIRST international Asian music awards held outside of India with singers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, the Middle East, and America.
7. The FIRST Bollywood award event to be covered by CNN, ABC World News, FOX TV, New York Times, Forbes, Newsday, Variety, Jade Magazine to name a few.
8. The FIRST Asian music/movie awards to gather the largest live audience in the world.
9. The FIRST Indian event to be covered by Time magazine – July 22^, 2002 issue.
10. The FIRST Indian management agency for Indian stars, based outside of India.
11. The FIRST Asian International Pay-Per-View event.

 

Top actors and actresses from the Indian film industry (Sanjay Dutt, Kareena Kapoor, Urmila Matondkar, Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea, Jimmy Shergill, Rajesh Khanna, Arshad Warsi, Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra etc.), and several international stars have agreed to grace the event with their presence. International top stars such as Arrow, from the Caribbean (famous for the “Feeling Hot Hot Hot” song), Belly Twins, Reggie Benjamin, Aashna, Supermodel Padmalakshmi and many more have promised to give earth-shattering onstage performances at the show.”  

 

 Sharon Stone whose name has been in the lime light of the entertainment world for many years will become a part of Bollywood glamour when she steps up to the podium to receive the “Woman of Conscience Award”. Miss Stone’s steadfast support for many charitable and philanthropic organizations like “Amfar” and in particular the” The Bridge Fund” further prompted this honor for her dedicated and selfless work.

 

A joint statement by the spokesperson for both the groups added, ”We both share our common views, ideas and goals, and we have plans to take our projects to the next level and place them in a league of their own. Movie production and TV production, events to be held globally with emphasis on annual mega International events to be held in Dubai, Music production and starting a music label etc., are a few of the projects to be launched in the near future. Our goal is to target a major portion of the international market share.”