Abhay misses Khans, Bachchans at IIFA

Singapore: The presence of the Khans and the Bachchans is being missed at the ongoing 13th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, but actor Abhay Deol feels others will make up for them. Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Amitabh Bachchan and his family have reportedly given IIFA a miss this year. "It would have been good to have the Khans and the Bachchans, but I hope that not having them won`t make the award function look any less," Abhay said Thursday at the green carpet of the world premiere of his ‘Shanghai’. "I`d like to believe, just like we had the Khans and the Bachchans, we have all sorts of artists who are good enough to support an award function," he added. Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga, president of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an interim stay on the release of film ‘Shanghai’ until its song ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ was deleted. The court, however, rejected the plea and cleared the film for screening. Abhay is enjoying the happy ending. "It has become a trend of doing something like that and it is quite sad. But the good thing is that they (complainants) exercise their rights to put in a PIL and the high court turned it down, holding up the democracy. It was a very positive outcome at the end of the day," he said. Directed by Dibaker Banerjee, the film had a star studded premiere here Friday with celebrities like Zoya Akhtar, Dia Mirza and her beau Sahil Sangha, Kalki Koechlin, Omi Vaidya, Vishal-Shekhar, Sameera Reddy, Ramesh Sippy-Kiran Juneja, Ayushmann Khurrana, Chitrangada Singh attending the screening. ‘Shanghai’, a political drama, also stars Emraan Hashmi, but he was missing from the premier as he is not keeping well. Organised by Wizcraft International Entertainment, the three-day cine event started Thursday. IANS