Veteran actor Kamal Haasan will be felicitated along with real-life actor couple Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D’souza and fashion designer Manish Malhotra at IIFA 2023.
Kamal will be honoured with the Outstanding Achievement in Indian Cinema award, while Riteish and Genelia will be presented with the Outstanding Achievement in Regional Cinema award. Manish will be given the Outstanding Achievement in Fashion and Cinema award during the ceremony, slated to be held on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, on May 26 and 27.
Referring to his longtime association with IIFA, Kamal said he was excited at the prospect of attending this year’s ceremony. “I am extremely honoured and grateful that I have been a part of many IIFAs. They are doing a great job promoting Indian cinema globally. I’m excited to be present at this year’s event.”
The 68-year-old actor began his career as a child artist with the Tamil film Kalathur Kannamma, bagging the President’s Gold Medal. He has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali film industries since then.
Riteish made his Bollywood debut with 2003’s romantic drama Tujhe Meri Kasam. Genelia was his leading lady and they went on to pair up for Masti and Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya, before tying the knot on February 3, 2012. A year later, Riteish launched his own production house, Mumbai Film Company, with the comedy-drama Balak Palak.
In 2014, Riteish made his debut in Marathi cinema with Lai Bhaari. Genelia, who also co-produced the action-drama, made a cameo appearance in the blockbuster film. In 2022, they produced Ved, a romantic drama that reunited them on screen. The film was written by Riteish and marked his directorial debut. It was the highest-grossing Marathi film of the year and the third-highest Marathi grosser of all time, surpassing Lai Bhaari.
Manish has been integral to the Hindi film industry for almost 33 years. He introduced the concept of styling in costume design in Ram Gopal Varma’s 1995 musical romance Rangeela.
In 2005, the stylist-entrepreneur launched his eponymous label and today has three flagship stores in Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad. His first international boutique is coming up at the Dubai Mall this year.
Some of Bollywood’s biggest names, including Salman Khan, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Jacqueline Fernandez, Rakul Preet Singh and Nora Fatehi will light up the Etihad Arena at IIFA 2023. The award ceremony will be hosted by Abhishek Bachchan and Vicky Kaushal.
Apart from that, rapper Badshah, lyricist-composer Amit Trivedi, EDM producer Nucleya and singers Sunidhi Chauhan and Sukhbir Singh will be taking centre stage at IIFA Rocks, which will be hosted by Farah Khan and Rajkummar Rao.