The opening gala night of Asia’s largest film tourism event – 8th India International Film Tourism Conclave (IIFTC) honored the cult filmmaker, Zoya Akhtar with IIFTC Tourism Impact Award 2020 for her outstanding contribution to the world tourism through her cinema. The award was presented by His Worship, Mr Naheed Nenshi - Mayor of Calgary, Alberta (Canada) at a glittering award ceremony held in Mumbai. 

While addressing the media about Zoya Akhter winning the award Harshad Bhagwat - Promoter of IIFTC Awards said “Zoya Akhter set the trend in the film tourism space with her 2011 classic ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ shot in Spain, following it up with 2015 comedy-drama ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ shot in Turkey. She has single handedly promoted tourism of these counties through her films making her a well deserving winner”     

Another big winner of the evening was, blockbuster Tamil Director, K. S. Ravikumar, who in his career spanning over 30 years has directed 43 films with starring mega stars including Sarath kumar,  Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth. 

The evening also saw awards for Cinematic Excellence being presented to the makers of Professor Shanku O El Dorado (Bengali), And the Oscar Goes To (Malayalam), Amar (Kannada), Dev (Tamil), Mannadhudu 2 (Telugu), War (Hindi) and Badla (Hindi) for showcasing global locations as diverse as from Brazil to Portugal to Switzerland to Ukraine to Indian audiences.   

The evening was an opening night of the 3-day mega film tourism event featuring over 50 international companies from over 20 countries coming to Bollywood, Mumbai to woo Indian filmmakers. The event saw participation from countries including and Portugal, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Kenya, UK, Poland, Iceland, Mauritius Canada, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Ras Al Khaimah, Czech Republic to name a few.