MUMBAI: International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards will be held in Sri Lanka this year.

The three-day event will be held from 3 to 5 June in Colombo.

Sri Lanka is set to host the three-day International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) event from 3 to 5 June in Colombo.

The awards, first staged in 2000, are held outside India every year in an effort to increase the international profile of Bollywood films.

IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan hopes the decision to bring the event to Colombo - that comes after the end of the island‘s long civil war last year -- would encourage collaboration.

"This is a very rare and wonderful opportunity for Sri Lanka. Thanks to the prevailing peace, Sri Lanka has received international recognition," said Duleep Mudadeniya, who heads the tourism bureau.

After the first IIFA awards in London, Hindi cinema ticket sales grew 35 per cent in Britain over the following six months, organisers said. Other cities where the IIFA has been held earlier include Bangkok, Macau, Johannesburg and Amsterdam.