At an event held at JW Marriott, Juhu, Mumbai, Amitabh Bachchan announced the venue for International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards venue for 2009. He declared The Venetian, Macau as the venue for the IIFA weekend to be taken place on June 11-13. Big B is the brand ambassador of the IIFA since its incorporation in 2000.

The event saw the presence of authorities from Macau as well. Amongst famous Bollywood personalities present at the event were Sholay maker Ramesh Sippy and Manmohan Shetty. Generally the norm has been that IIFA venue announcement first press conferences take place at the venue city itself but this year it saw a change as it was announced in Mumbai. Toronto and Istanbul too were reportedly in the race of getting the hosting honour this year.

Though the event began pretty much on time, those present could not hide their restlessness as the speeches went on for too long than they should have been. Also since it was a ‘Dry Day’ there were no cocktails served at the venue but just dinner. The reason being, there are elections in Mumbai on April 30th and government order has been out to observe Dry Day from April 28th evening to April 30th evening. Big B also said that he would be happy to see Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan perform at the event.

Our sources now reveal that this year, the IIFA awards night will be hosted by Abhishek Bachchan and Ritesh Deshmukh.-Sampurn Media