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News is fast and furiously flowing on twitter this morning regarding the IIFA nominations, which, to be quite honest, are not surprising one bit and are really just an echo of all the other awards already given out this season already.

Nomination voting was held earlier this month, and, apparently, voting attendance was astonishingly high, with over 1500 industry stalwarts, actors, directors, producers, technicians and composers (among others) casting their votes.

One of the things I'm very excited about, however, is that one of my favorite funny character actors, the extremely talented Bowman Irani is scheduled to host the event! A great choice, IIFA team! Rumours of who is going to be in attendance otherwise are sketchy at best. I already read that Akshay Kumar would be performing only to be rescinded the next day. I guess only time will tell!

Here's the list of completely unsurprising nominations so far.

Negative Role:
Naseeruddin Shah - Allah Kay Bandey
Sonu Sood - Dabangg
Emraan Hashmi - Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
Manoj Bajpayee - Raajneeti
Ronit Roy - Udaan

Comic Role:
Paresh Rawal - Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge
Johny Lever - Golmaal 3
Riteish Deshmukh - Housefull
Anil Kapoor - No Problem
Pradhuman Singh - Tere Bin Laden

Supporting Female:
Amrita Puri - Aisha
Dimple Kapadia - Dabangg
Ratna Pathak - Golmaal 3
Shernaz Patel - Guzaarish
Prachi Desai - Once Upon A Time In Mumbai

Supporting Male:
Mithun - Golmaal 3
Arshad Warsi - Ishqiya
Emraan Hashmi -Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
Arjun Rampal - Raajneeti
Manoj Bajpayee - Raajneeti

Leading Female Nominees:
Anushka Sharma - Band Baaja Baaraat
Kareena Kapoor - Golmaal 3
Aishwarya Rai - Guzaarish
Vidya Balan -Ishqiya
Katrina Kaif - Raajneeti

Leading Male Nominees
Salman Khan - Dabangg
Hrithik Roshan - Guzaarish
Shah Rukh Khan - My Name Is Khan
Ajay Devgn - Once Upon A Time In Mumbaa
Ranbir Kapoor - Raajneeti

Best Direction Nominees:
Band Baaja Baaraat
Dabangg
Guzaarish
My Name Is Khan
Once Upon A Time In Mumbai
Udaan

Best Film Nominees:
Band Baaja Baarat
Dabangg
My Name Is Khan
Raajneeti
Once Upon A Time In Mumbai

I've picked up most of these films now and will make sure to watch all of the nominated films before June! I don't think we'll see much differences between this awards ceremony and the others, but you never know. My hope is that Arshad and Vidya both win for their respective categories!!! And, I'm really hoping that the MNIK nominations will persuade Shah to come out (FINGERS CROSSED), even if he doesn't take home anything!

2 months, 23 days to go!