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IIFA notes: Bollywood awards sound track to feature Tampa native DJ Ravidrums

 
Former Tampa resident Ravi Jakhotia, a.k.a. DJ Ravidrums, will play the event’s official music track.
Former Tampa resident Ravi Jakhotia, a.k.a. DJ Ravidrums, will play the event’s official music track.
Published April 17, 2014

TAMPA — One of the first songs played at next week's Bollywood film industry awards show will be Do Da Tampa, featuring Tampa native and Chamberlain High School graduate Ravi Jakhotia, also known as DJ Ravidrums.

Do Da Tampa will be the event's official music track, the International Indian Film Academy announced Wednesday, and will be part of the opening act at the awards show at Raymond James Stadium on April 26.

DJ Ravidrums — known for his "live re-mix" featuring simultaneous DJ'ing and drumming — is teaming up with conga player Gumbi Ortiz on the highly percussive song, which you can hear at m.soundcloud.com/urban-asian/iifa-tells-you-do-da-tampa

IIFA will hardly be the first big show for DJ Ravidrums, whose resume includes gigs at the MTV Video Music Awards, the 2008 Super Bowl halftime show with Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, the Playboy mansion and as music director for the former NBC comedy Howie Do It with Howie Mandel.

A winning combo

Bollywood Oscars. Tampa Bay. Flash mob. Times Square.

For local tourism officials, that's a good combination.

"Phenomental marketing," Visit Tampa Bay president Santiago Corrada said of the young Indian dance troupe that drew a crowd in New York City late Sunday afternoon. "I don't know that we've ever done any kind of marketing for the destination in Times Square."

To see the four-minute YouTube video of Bollywood dancers interacting with Manhattan characters, visit youtube.com/watch?v=kA2UzK9T_iw&list=UULkQzbafacb9eBFMh1tH8jg

Sponsored by ... who?

IIFA's main corporate sponsors may be household names in India, but here, not so much. And there are about as many of them as there are patches on a NASCAR driver's jumpsuit.

Here's a quick look at a few of the most prominent:

The official name of the overall event is the Videocon d2h IIFA Weekend. (Videocon d2h is a "direct-to-home" provider of satellite television service in India.)

IIFA's two-day business event at the Tampa Convention Center is known as the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum. (FICCI is the acronym for the nonprofit Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, established in 1927.)

And the RayJay awards show is the Tata Motors IIFA Awards. (Tata Motors is India's largest auto manufacturer, with 60,000 employees and 2013 sales of $34.7 billion. It is part of the Tata Group, which includes 100 companies in communications and IT, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals.)

Richard Danielson can be reached at (813) 226-3403, Danielson@tampabay.com or @Danielson_Times on Twitter.