MADRID: Indian celebrities gathered in Madrid Saturday for the “Bollywood Oscars”, a star-studded award show being held in Spain for the first time that will be watched by up to 800 million people worldwide.
The award show, which celebrates the Hindi language film industry known as Bollywood, takes place in a different city outside of India every year in the hope of luring new audiences to the genre.
Indian historical epic “Bajirao Mastani” got the ball rolling on Friday at a glittering concert and fashion show, scooping nine out of 14 awards given out ahead of Saturday’s shindig.
Set in the 18th century, the film featuring an all-star cast including actresses Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, with Ranveer Singh in the main role picked up the awards for choreography and best cinematography among others.
“Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto also collected a special award for outstanding achievement by an Indian actor in international cinema, receiving her honour from co-star Anil Kapoor.
“It is great to see so many Indians out here, it is so amazing,” she said. Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood star who shot to fame as the winner of British reality TV show “Celebrity Big Brother”, also took part, leading a yoga “masterclass”.
Shetty made headlines in 2007 after a fellow Big Brother contestant mocked her name and Indian origin.