Indian film legend Amitabh Bachchan on Friday kicked off a weekend-long Bollywood extravaganza in the Thai capital, where movie stars will dazzle movie fans with the subcontinent's version of the Oscars. “In today's world where there are so many differences, animosity and hatred, cinema is one entity that brings all of us together to love, respect and honor each other,” said Bachchan, the brand ambassador of the International Indian Film Academy. Big-name Bollywood stars including Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Zayed Khan and Priyanka Chopra will be parading down the green carpet - instead of red - in a bid to spread awareness about global warming. The glitzy award ceremony Sunday will feature colorful, high-energy musical displays by various Bollywood stars including Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. The event will also feature a premier screening of Ram Gopal Varma's “Sarkar Raj,” starring Bachchan, his son, Abhishek Bachchan, and Abhishek's wife, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan. The first film featuring three members of Bollywood's first family is about a controversial plan to build a power plant, exploring the politics of development against the backdrop of political intimidation and corruption. Other Bollywood films that will be screened in the Thai capital during the weekend include “Mission Istaanbul,” “Acid Factory,” “Love Story 2050” and “De Taali.” “It is in the darkened hall of a cinema theater when we sit together not wanting to know whether the person sitting next to us is a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Sikh,” said Bachchan, who has a massive following among South Asians the world over. “We see the same product. We laugh at the same jokes. We sing the same songs.” Bachchan has acted in more than 150 films in a career spanning more than three decades. The Mumbai-based industry, commonly called Bollywood, churns out some 800 Hindi-language movies a year - three times Hollywood's production rate. Hundreds more films are produced in southern India. The International Indian Film Academy awards were launched in 2000 to promote Indian films to an international audience. Earlier ceremonies were held in the UAE, the Netherlands and Singapore.
