IIFA 2025: Karisma, Kareena to pay tribute to Raj Kapoor; SRK, Katrina, Vicky in attendance

Mumbai, Feb 1 (PTI) With over 100 plus celebrities from Bollywood to special performances by Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Madhuri Dixit Nene, the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2025 will be nothing short of a “big fat wedding” in India, says IIFA Awards founder-director Andre Timmins.

The upcoming edition of the IIFA awards – to be hosted by Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan — will be held on March 8 and 9 in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

“Every year is different because every country is different. The challenge is to get the industry together, the whole idea is that. The film industry has been of great support to us. We are bringing stars closer to the fans. Every year traveling with 800 people isn’t easy.

“Cinema is all a soft power and we’ve always tried our best to carry the Indian flag high. We need to push India globally; we are exporting Indian culture overseas. What we are doing is like a big fat wedding, taking celebrities, entertaining everyone, interacting and spending time,” Timmins told PTI.

He further said with the support of the Indian government, they intend to make IIFA awards “better and bigger”.

“We need support from the government of India to see how we can collaborate in a better form, use their network and make it bigger. Like, we saw what happened with the Coldplay concert. I think all the states are going to wake up and have more events.

“For IIFA awards in Jaipur, you’ll see a minimum of 60,000 people in two days. We will have about 100 plus actors, filmmakers and other people from the industry over two days.”

In attendance will be a host of B-town celebrities including Shah Rukh, Dixit Nene, Kareena, Karisma, Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, who will be performing at the IIFA stage.

“We’ve extended an invitation for the IIFA awards to both Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Salman is a great friend, he is family, though Aamir doesn’t attend award functions, we are hoping for their presence.

“We’ve also invited south movie stars like Rana Daggubatti, Venkatesh, Allu Arjun, and Ram Charan,” Timmins said.

From the Hindi film industry, the guests also include Katrina Kaif, Vicky Kaushal, Vidya Balan, Bobby Deol, Dia Mirza, David Dhawan, Rakesh Roshan and Anees Bazmee.

IIFA is an internationally recognized platform that promotes Indian cinema to both global and Indian audiences, attracting a wide following of cinema enthusiasts.

The first IIFA Awards were held in London in 2000. Since then, the event has been hosted annually across 14 countries and 18 cities, celebrating the diversity of Indian cinema worldwide.

Timmins said they are toying with the idea of starting IIFA awards in the West.

“It will be called ‘IIFA Worldwide’. The idea is to bring Bollywood and Hollywood in America together so it will travel from Las Vegas to Chicago and Miami. We are honouring Hollywood films in India and Indian cinema as well,” he added.