IIFA nominations out, Taare Zameen... misses out

New Delhi: Just as most things come full circle, so did this – the brand ambassador of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), Amitabh Bachchan had set in motion the voting process for IDEA-IIFA Awards 2008 by casting the first vote a few weeks ago. And today, at the IIFA meet in the Capital, the Big B was present when the nominees were announced.

Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Shahid Kapoor were nominated in the best actor category while Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Tabu and Vidya Balan were nominated in the best actress catagory.

Nominees for the best director included Anurag Basu, David Dhawan, Imtiaz Ali, Mani Ratnam, Priyadarshan and Shimit Amin.

And Guru, Chak De India, Jab We Met, Om Shanti Om, Partner and Life in a Metro were nominated in the category for the best film.

Surprisingly, Taare Zameen Par did not receive any nominations as only those producers who had submitted their films to the IIFA panel were considered.

With a viewership of almost 600 million, the IIFA awards are among the world's most-watched entertainment events.

This year the prestigious awards will be held in Bangkok in June.