IIFA Awards 2014 Fever

IIFA Awards in Tampa Bay, FL, USA from April 23 - 26, 2014

For those of you who don't know what IIFA is, here it is:  IIFA Awards are International Indian Film Academy Awards celebrated annually to honor the actors/technical staff/professionals from the Hindi Film Industry (known as the Bollywood)!! IIFA awards are always held outside of India in a different country each year.  This way IIFA brings the Indian culture to whichever country it chooses as well as brings the Bollywood to the millions and millions of fans across the world!!  It is no different from other awards show but it's still got a unique thing to it that attracts you towards it and that's the beauty of IIFA is that it takes you to different and exotic locations each year!!  It becomes a huge celebration!

Well, I think you get the picture now on what IIFA Awards are :) (and if not then Google it up).  Before I get into anything regarding IIFA, I have to take you all in a flashback to last year, end of September 2013, when I first found out about IIFA Awards coming to Tampa Bay, FL in 2014, for the first time in US!

Last year, I planned a Bahamas Cruise with few friends (I won't bore you with the cruise details) where I made a new friend, K!  K is very involved in the community and was the one to tell us that IIFA is coming to Tampa Bay, FL (in US for the very first time) and it was exciting enough that all the friends were like, oh yea, we should go for it!! That was then, just discussion on the fact that IIFA is coming to Tampa Bay and the talk was kind of over there.  Since then, every time I talked to K here and there, it was mentioned that IIFA is coming and we should plan a trip for sure.  Cut to January 2014, when the IIFA dates were announced to be April 23 - 26, 2014 and it was announced that the tickets for IIFA will go on sale from January 17, 2014, K kept me posted and told me I should not think twice and just buy the ticket since it'll be a lifetime experience.  I was not sure...but he definitely convinced me to come to IIFA since it was going to be in his home town!  I told him I am going to buy the ticket!! Then came the question of who will I go with and who will I sit with if I get the ticket (my brother was supposed to come initially but he wasn't too interested in this so he decided not to come)?? That's when I reconnected with another friend, Ka, who had already planned to go to the event.  We talked and bought our tickets together so we can have our seats together in this big stadium where the event was going to be held.  It's good to have a familiar face sitting next to you, otherwise it's no fun discussing the event to a stranger sitting next to you (without the stranger thinking you're a creep trying to strike a conversation)! Anyways, so the ticket was booked and now there was no turning back and the only thing on my mind was "IIFA, here I come!!" :)

I booked my air tickets and it was final....I was going to IIFA!!  I was too excited and just couldn't believe it!  And that's it, that's when IIFA fever started!!  It was down to counting months, and then days, and then just hours (at the airport) away from Tampa :) :)

The credit in the deciding factor for my IIFA trip goes to my friend, K, who convinced me to come to IIFA in Tampa Bay since it was coming to his home town, plus he took care of the accommodation in the hotel for me and my friends, plus he got IIFA Rocks passes for me and a friend, plus he got the IIFA Magic of the Movies Awards passes for me and a friend, plus he got after party passes for me and a friend!!!! That's A LOT that he did for a friend so selflessly and just shows how great of a person he is!!  I also know that he had been helping out IIFA committee day-in and day-out, putting lots of hours in the work...but that's him!  So a BIG thanks to him for my IIFA trip!!

In the meanwhile, I also got a message from my friend, Ka, who was in India visiting the IIFA group, that she was able to get media accreditation for herself, myself, and one of her friends.  It was kind of exciting to know that we were going to have media badges but I didn't know much on what that meant in terms of access at the IIFA.  But let me tell you that it surely made the IIFA experience more fun and felt like that extra extra cherry on top of the cake :).  So a Big thanks to her as well!!

This, my friends, is just the beginning of my IIFA fever!  Stay tuned for my day to day experiences with IIFA event, the craziness of each day, the close encounters with the actors, the fashion shows, the evening shows, the green carpet, and finally the main event of IIFA awards show!!

Hope you enjoyed reading this post!! Many more to come :)
Enjoy!!