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says an additional 1,800 short films, documentaries and non-feature films were released. In contrast, the Motion Picture Association of America said a total of 818 films were produced in 2012 for theatrical release.
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may be hard to imagine, but Tampa will be seeing a lot of red next summer when Bollywood film stars arrive next June for the 15th annual International Indian Film Academy Awards. They are the equivalent to Hollywood’s Oscars. Visit Tampa Bay, the independent nonprofit organization that serves to promote Tampa and Hillsborough County, announced July 5 that Tampa had been chosen as the first U.S. city to host the IIFA’s annual four-day event. The academy has never held the event in its native India, but has chosen other international cities like Singapore, London, Amsterdam and Dubai to be its host. Mayor Buckhorn has insisted that the city’s spotlight performance during the 2012 RNC solidified it as a major player to be considered for future international events. The fact that the IIFA chose Tampa over other major international venues certainly supports his assertion. As of the July 4 weekend, no specific Tampa venues had been named, but Visit Tampa Bay spokeswoman Liana Lopez said the event has traditionally been held in “multiple venues.” A delegation of county officials, Indian business leaders, tourism board members and trade leaders were in Macau for the 2013 IIFA Awards that weekend.
The news of Tampa’s selection for the IIFA event reached the Kumar residence on Ladoga Avenue via text message from D.C. “My daughter, Tricha, is studying at Georgetown,” said Mudra Kumar. “She was taking a break from studying for exams and sent me this text message asking me if I knew that the Bollywood Oscars were coming to Tampa. It was very exciting news for us!” Kumar and her husband, Rakesh, both 56, moved to the United States from Delhi 22 years ago. She is an associate professor of pediatrics at USF and he is a highly regarded South Tampa neurosurgeon. Their family movie theater is a favorite hangout after long days at work, and friends from around the neighborhood like to come over and share in the fun. Life in the United States for the Kumars
somewhat mirrors their old life in Delhi. The one big difference, Kumar says, is that most people in India don’t have access to DVD players the way they do in the U.S. People in India, she insists, love going to the theater to see movies and it’s a large part of Indian culture. “Everybody in India goes to the movies– everybody,” Kumar said. “With Bollywood as the largest producers of film in the world, this news becomes quite significant to the Indian community in Tampa, and it’s a very active community of about 25,000. That’s incredible to think that Tampa would be the chosen city.” According to accounting giant KPMG’s sixth edition of “Film Financing and Television Programming: A Taxation Guide”, India produces more than 1,200 feature films each year. In 2010 the firm
While most Americans think of Bollywood as the all-encompassing term for Indian cinematic arts, it is not. It refers to Hindi language films made in the former city of Bombay, now known as Mumbai (think Slumdog Millionaire). There are numerous other Hollywood-inspired spinoffs in India that include Tollywood (Telugu cinema based in Hyderabad), Kollywood (Tamil cinema located primarily in Kodambakkam), Mollywood (Malayalam cinema, based in Kerala), and Ollywood (the Oriya film industry based in Odisha). The Kumar family has relatives working in the Mumbai-based filmmaking industry, so when the matriarch of the Tampa family told ThePOST what Hindi-language cinema is all about, she helped dispel some of the stereotypical visions of major musical productions, flashy costumes and cheesy movie sets a la American musicals from the 50s and early 60s. “The Indian cinema has matured considerably over the last few years, with some great films that address and depict socially responsible and global issues, including subjects that were taboo in the Indian society until recently–homosexuality, remarriage, premarital sex, single parenthood.” 3
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