Popular Bollywood films "Om Shanti Om" "Guru" and "Chak De India" were among the favorites to win top honors Sunday at the Indian film industry's glitzy awards ceremony.
Mani Ratna topped the list of nominees in the best director category while Shak Rukh Khan was a good bet to win best actor.
The best actress will be a close race between rising star Deepika Padukone for her performance in "Om Shanti Om" and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, who played alongside her husband Abhishek Bachchan in "Guru."
Fans will vote for their favorite stars on the Internet and the results will be announced at the awards ceremony. As many as 600 million people worldwide were expected to watch the ceremony, which is sponsored by the Indian International Film Academy.
Along with best movie, actors and directors, nominees will compete in number of categories that will feature the prominence of song-and-dance in the industry, including best lyrics, musical direction and playback singer.
"We still don't know yet who's going win tonight but they all are here," said Sabbas Joseph, director of Wizcraft Entertainment that helped organize the awards ceremony. "It's the biggest celebration of the Indian movie industry."
At 5:30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT), the big names of Bollywood — including Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Zayed Khan and Priyanka Chopra — paraded down a green carpet, instead of red, in a bid to spread awareness about global warming.
The awards ceremony two hours later will feature colorful, high-energy musical displays by various Bollywood stars including Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif.
The event will also feature a premier screening of Ram Gopal Varma's "Sarkar Raj."
Other Bollywood films that will be screened in the Thai capital during the weekend include "Mission Istaanbul," "Acid Factory," "Love Story 2050" and "De Taali."
The Mumbai-based Indian film industry, commonly called Bollywood, churns out some 800 Hindi-language movies a year — three times Hollywood's production rate. Hundreds more films are produced in southern India.
The International Indian Film Academy awards were launched in 2000 to promote Indian films to an international audience. Earlier ceremonies were held in the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and Singapore.
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