Over 1500 Industry Members Vote for 10th IIFA Awards. IIFA 2009 gets off to a great start with The IIFA Voting Weekend.

In a never before seen turnout from the Indian Film Industry in recent times, an astounding 1500 industry members showed up to support IIFA in its tenth year and vote for who the deem to be the best of 2008. The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Voting Weekend for the IIFA Awards 2009, started on Friday, the 6th of March and was on for three days at the J. W. Marriot in Mumbai.

This damsel from Bihar tried her best to have a glam debut with the Akshay Kumar- John Abraham starrrer ‘Garam Masala’.

But in spite of all the glitz and glamour, she kind of got lost in the crowd thanks to the presence of two muscled guys and wannabes like Nargis, Daisy Bopanna and even the forever wannabe Rimi Sen squabbling for attention.

And it’s not so easy for a dowdy small town girl to suddenly turn fully chic and hip. The ‘I'm trying hard to be so hip’ attitude is very, very blatant in chicks like Neetu.

It could be calamitous for two of the biggest films of the year. Vipul Shah's London Dreams which does NOT feature the director's favourite actor Akshay Kumar but Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan , is all set to clash with the new Akshay starrer Blue on the grand Independence Day weekend on August 14.

But two big films during the same week seems suicidal. So Vipul Shah took his friend Akshay Kumar into confidence and met up with Raj Mehtra, head honcho of Asthvinayak to request them for a change in the release date of Blue.

The last time the unlikely pair Akki and Ash teamed together was in Rajkumar Santoshi's `Khakee' more than five years ago.

It was a hard hitting film, alright. So hard hitting that Ash turned out to be the surprise vamp in the end and gunned down poor lover boy Akki in the end.

But this movie with its different twist in the tale did fairly well at the box office.

Now Vipul Shah has announced his next big project with Akki- Ash in lead roles.

Well, the buzz was that it was titled 'Action Replay' but the latest is that Vipul is yet to confirm the final title.

Three releases almost coming back to back in the upcoming weeks have a common thread. Neil Nitin Mukesh - Bipasha Basu starrer Aa Dekhen Zara releasing on 27th March, Akshay Kumar starrer 8X10 Tasveer directed by Nagesh Kukunoor releasing on 3rd April and Vashu Bhagnani's son Jacky's launch pad Kal Kisne Dekha having a tentative release date of April 10th all are having its main lead hero's having special powers.

Akshay Kumar, it seems, has taken a fancy for international singers of late. After Chandni Chowk To China, the actor has again teamed up with US-based desi hip-hop and rap star Bohemia for a peppy song and music video for his forthcoming Percept Picture Company's film 8X10 Tasveer. Apart from this Akshay had earlier teamed up with Snoop Dogg in Singh Is Kinng, Kylie Minogue in Blue.