One Billion Rupees For IIFA
By Cassandra Mascarenhas
The Sri Lankan Government has spent almost Rs. 1000 million to prepare the city of Colombo for the International Indian Film Academy awards, revealed the Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena.
Colombo was given a complete facelift in anticipation of hosting the awards, with several improvements to its infrastructure and venues in the city.
The awards ceremony was held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, which was also completely renovated for the event. “450 million rupees was spent on revamping the stadium, to bring it up to the international standards required to hold the IIFA awards”, confirmed the Deputy Minister.
When questioned as to how much returns the country would receive after such a huge investment, Abeywardena responded rather vaguely, stating that the 2200 Indians who had flown down to Sri Lanka for the event were quite a source of income.
“It is hard to give exact figures on the returns the country has received – however all the hotels in Colombo were fully booked which is very promising”. The Sunday Leader learns however that most of the hotels gave complimentary rooms to the Indian stars – while other were given the rooms at special concessionary rates.
The Minister is also certain that the exposure the country received by hosting the awards will boost tourism within the next two years, with an anticipated increase of 50% in the amount of Indian tourists visiting Sri Lanka. The FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum held over the weekend to promote bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka is also set to improve economic growth in the country, he said.
Whether it is profitable or not, The Prince seem to be enjoying himself. Is this not enough?
God bless this country and the idiots who still run around them. This is why empty vessels make the biggest noise.
Now Lasith Malinga, by allowing the Prince to depart from the crease with four [4] runs has assured himself a place in the cricket eleven of ma hi Armin’s cup boys.
He has mastered these from his fellow down southerner, who wears the royal ball guard.
As to the billion lost, who cares about, it is as usual a mere drop in the ocean. a j.
Slaman Khan, answerig to a question said some people in Tamil Nadu were not happy our coming here. We came to entertain the poeple who have suffered in the war. How can people who were directly suffered in the war afford to pay Rs25,000 to watch his entertainment. He suppose to be opeing housing project put up for the war victims. This project is in Ja’ela not in the North or East. This is another way this government is cheating the foreigners. People in one end having celebration after celebrations but the people in the opposit end are mourning and suffering and struggling to find even the basic needs for their survival. This is Sri Lankan democraze.
Making merry on dead war hero’s scarifices and holding the man that bought victory to the country in prison with all the dirty and uncivilzed tactics. Oooh God what a sinful and evil nation.
Martin,
Money was supposed to be raised to build houses in the north. Then Salmon Khan was right. Ja’ela is north of Colombo. But how far is the question?
A loser…..Crying…
Jeeeez, stop being so typical!
appreciate what has come to Sri Lanka and enjoy it.stop mourning at every move taken by the government.
Join hands and march forward!
If IIFA organizers listened to those mindless protesters back in Tamilnadu and shifted the event to somewhere else, the same people who are now seeing IIFA as an useless thing would have been saying that it is a big loss for the country!
@kevin
dont forget even amithab, abishek, ais and many more didnt come to the IFFA.
lol
its a failure event
True.. He likes cheap publicity…….. good lesson….
( I think this MR title is wrong for him cuz
DS – Don Stephen
JR – Junius Richard
by that way Percy Mahendra should be PM – not MR )
The war in Sri Lanka was not just a war of the Sri Lankans against the Tamil people, according to writer-activist Arundhati Roy. “That was a corporate war. All the large Indian companies are now heading to Sri Lanka to make more money,” Roy said on Friday. “The political parties of Tamil Nadu were the only ones who could have stopped the genocide in Sri Lanka, but they chose to stand by silently. A similar thing is happening in central India where tribals are resisting the takeover of natural resources by corporates.” Roy was speaking at a Convention on Operation Green Hunt and Genocidal attack on tribals by Indian State’ organised in the city on Friday by the Federation Against Internal Repression.
Who is this damn Arundhati Roy?
Just because she writes a book (fiction) , white man gives her an award and she becomes an expert on erverything.
Then she becomes the goddess of all lesser people like you.
ARUNDATHI ROY HAS GOT BOOKER AWARD AND HER GODS CHILD WHICH HAS BEEN TRANSLATED INTO …… 27 LANGUAGES EXCEPT MODAYA LANGUAGE….GOT IT?
So she becomes an expert in Sri Lanka affairs? Get lost.
who the hell know you clown?
people listen Arundadthi Roy speak and write who the hell listen you..?even street dogs bark at you..when you go out?
KOPPU: These devils, just do not know to read and write the Sanskrit dialect called Sinhalese an import from mother India.
Then how on earth do you expect them to know about Arundhati Roy, it is overtime for their little brains. a j.
their language is a mix of Paali(is from Mongolian+Sanskrit mix) and Tamil which is our Indigneous Language.
BUT, we are all Eela(in Tamil)/Hela(in Paali) People. Singheelam people are the Converted to (Evil) Buddhism and the rest are still Indigenous.
Go an listen to Mahinda Rajapakse’s speeches. Know one will know that you are a fool, because you live among fools. Happy living.
An independent United Nations human rights expert today stressed the need for international inquiries into serious allegations of extrajudicial executions in cases where national probes have been insufficient, citing examples relating to the Gaza Strip and Sri Lanka.
Why don’t you go to the united nations with some fair and lovely cream and blow some of them……………
EVEN KOFI ANAN HAS SAID ABOUT THE NEED OF WAR OF MODAYAS…..ROPE IS TIGHTENING…IF BUDDHIST BN-KI-MOON AND HIS MALAYALI STAFF STILL TARY TO COVER UP SOON THEY SHOULD BE IN THE DOCK…??? HOW MUCH MALAYALI AT UN HAS GOT FROM MODAYAS TO COVER UP THIS CRIME……????HOW MUCH MALAYALIES AT DELHI HAVE GOT…..????
Money well spent no question about it.
guess who got 30% of it :P
Is it, MR, NR, BR, CR, SR ?. a j.
1 billion Rs busted on kissing Indians. Hope they kiss you well in return.
Even our movie stars did not attend…. what a shame for spending so much on this while most main roads and bye roads in the other parts of Colombo are filled with garbage…….
Another… imagine the level of the so called famous and high profile Bollywood actors who attended this IIFA event was not aware that it is rude not to attend the Host counties Head of State invitation to brunch…. Imagine these guys standards and education level….. Where is our country heading ?????
Mongolian Buddhist Monks converted our Eelam People into Evil Buddhism, and those of our own Brethren were called as Singh Eela/Hela people.
Singheela People are lost their mind during the Process of Meditation and have a very unsettled mind and just obey to those Evil Monks. They even kill their own Indigenous Brethren during the Genocidal Riots in 1958, 1977, 1983 onwards.
What can we do to save them from the Hypnotised Position of Meditation and bring them to Sane State. A good blow project should be found to Rescue them.
I agree on the part of our ministers LOST IN THEIR MIND
Dear Creator… think intelligently, this have handled in such a professional manner that our President would have been insulted if he has attended the awards ceremony… even our main movie stars did not attend this… You may not be aware or blind to how did our Tourist board treat our movie stars…. This sure was a waste of time…. Close your mouth and first open your eyes and ears my dear
They got it in style when most of these so called popular bollywood actors failed to attend the brunch hosted by our President
I don’t want to do that; I prefer to do with you.
China Vice Premier to visit Sri Lanka
Vice Prime Minister of the State Council of the People’s Republic China, Zhang Dejiang, is to pay an official visit to Sri Lanka from June 10 to 12. He will be leading a thirty member delegation, Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry said in a press release.
Oh dude ur PEELAM on the way, keep dreaming ….!!!!
some are born critics, they always have a negative idea rather than thinking of change. I felt very sad for the whole lot, But I am sure If they were given a position, would have done the same
Yeah Yeah, we have a change here…. for the worse… Head of state invites and most of these visitors not bothered to honour it…. now we are like dogs begging these guys, please please attend our Presidents brunch invitation.. oh please please, still they did not come…
I told u guys – in my last week coments , It is a failure
I am, laughing
It is unfortunate that no body is talking about development. This money could have been spent to “really” build some houses for the war displace, rather than showing off with some “so called” houses built for them. Mahinda understood it was an failure and avaoided going there for the final day. Now the people need to understand this and stop this “Maharaja” to stop spending the pople’s money in such useless ways. Unfortunate that people has lost their brains and fighting for useless things.
TOTAL FAILURE..SLAP TO MODAYAS..DISGRACE TO IIFA RUN BY MALAYALIES….MANY MODAYAS DONT AWARE THAT NUCLEUS OF INDIAN CINEMA IS IN CHENNAI…NOT IN BOMBAY…JOKE THEY CALL THIS B-OLLY WOOD….FINANCIERS..MUSIC DIRECTORS…DIRECTORS…TECHNICIANS..LABS..STET OF ART DUBBING AND MUSIC STUDIOS ALL ARE IN CHENNAI….MANY BUDGET OF TAMIL FILS HAVE EXCEED HINDI FILMS….RAVAANA IS THE BIGGEST BUDGET FILM IN INDIA….WHAT IS IMPORATNT TO THIS INDIAN FILM STARTS (forget about 3rd grade and 4th grade who came to modaya land) IS THEIR PROFESSION….AND INCOME…REMEMBER…
NOW MODAYAS KNOW WHAT TAMILS CAN DO……….
THIS ONE BILLION RUPEE COULD HAVE SPENT ON PODIMENIKE..ARIYAWATHI…WHO ARE THROWING THEIR OWN BABIES INTO RIVER BECAUES OF POVERTY…..WHAT A PITY MANY VIPS WERE DREAMING TO TAKE PHOTO WITH AISWARIYA RAI…..ALL DREAMS….CONDOLENCES…
excellent Koopu …that´s what ceylon needs and not this boru sobanaya shows
WHY NOT START ANOTHER BALI IN HAMBANTOTA……??? TO GET FOREIGN EXCAHNGE…….
IT SEEMS SLARMY IS NOT INTERESTED IN MENTALLY-OFF LTTE PEELAM NUTS LIKE THIS AS THEY ARE INNOCENT WITHIN THEIR HEART, HOWEVER MAD THEY ARE!
Yes..It is a huge some… Mainly our country required good image world wide after so many years fighting. Same way from the IFA business meeting hope some indian buinessman will start investing in SL. Hope for the best. If governmet got some sponsers to sponser the event is better than wasting tax prayersmoney
They could not even get these 3rd class actors to attend our presidents brunch.. what a joke
[...] just heard over at The Sunday Leader that the Sri Lankan Government has spent almost Rs. 1 Billion for the preparations for hosting the [...]
The spending just started. The Srilankans have given the Rajapakse brothers 7 more years.
Keep counting the billions……
While the time they leave politics, there will be nothing left in Srilanka. The land would be ownd by foreign countries.
The present regime is boasting about economic growth and showing off the flyovers and bridges it sis building as the proof of their achievements. The bridges and the fyovers were built with the money that was doneated by the international community to rebuild the lives of those affected by the Tsunami. It is a fraud committed against the affected people who are still languishing in abject poverty having lost all the livelyhoods as well as their kith and kin.
That money has now dried out and the S/L government is trying to milk the IC for the “development” of the N&E. Instead of buidling the infrastructure in the N&E, all we see are Buddhist statues and monuments of conquests being built in every road junction in the N&E. This is the sure way to throw away the unification of the island. Unity amonst people will only come about when people are united willingly. Does a ordinary Sinhala person really believe that by building more and more Bhuddist statues in the N&E they can unify the people? Did you really elect this government to waste your money on projects that devide this country and thamasha that benefits the Rajapakshas.
If you did, you have the rulers you deserve.
This was a thoughtful expenditure and a very thoughtful advebture. By and large the Indian Population was naive to what was going on in Sri Lanka .Now that the Film Stars have got involved Indians are being introduced to the Sri Lankan Ravana’s problem.You can spend a billion and have ample negative publicity stay tuned for more and more
Yes, Its worth spending 1 billion cause this 3 deserve the title
(3 Idiot s)
There is big hole on the Galle road opposite of the Roxy cinema , Please issue one of the profit to develop / Maintain poor road in Sri Lanka before regain Sri Lanka
This hole keeps coming as our guys dont know how to fix it permanently
And what happened to the train which was launched from Katunayaka to Colombo in expense of 300 million rs??? These guys never think of future when doing something… Uneducated, uncivilized and unqualified fools. Who’s money are they spending??
Is it not working already????
I think that this is all sour grapes.. The 4letter cowards and their ever decreasing supporters tried really hard to stop the awards from being held in this peaceful nation. But they all failed and infighting between each other is now the headline in Paris. Anyway, please keep on dreaming and am sure you will fail AGAIN. As long as you embrace evil, you will always be followed by evil. You follow peace, and peace will follow you. Try to change at least now. It’s never too late. You live only once and live it in peace. All people are welcome to Sri Lanka. Even you..
One thing we can be sure of, Sri Lanka going bananas
I feel sorry for the organisers
POPULARITY OF ACTORS IS JUDGED BY THE FEE THEY COMMAND FOR EACH FILM. NONE OF THE GUYS EVEN COME NEAR THE LIKES OF RAJNIKANTH, KAMALHASAN, VIJAY, AIYSHWARYA, PRIYANKA CHOPRA, BACHANS, SHARUK AND AMIR. SLAMAN IS TO BE CONVICTED FOR MANSLAUGTER SOON. SANJAY DUTT IS A CONVICTED FELON. SO IS THIS WHAT OUR YAPA IS TALKING ABOUT? HE WILL BEAT BOGOLS SOON IN VERBOSITY.
[...] State spends over one billion rupees on the Indian International Film Academy (IIFA) awards held in Colombo last year, but claim they have inadequate funds to house and feed their internally displaced citizenship [...]