IIFA 2017: All you need to know about this year's two-day extravaganza

The 18th IIFA awards will be held in New York this year over 14-15 July (15, 16th July, India time).

The two days will be a grand celebration of Indian cinema and all the artists who have contributed in taking Hindi cinema beyond the realm of our own nation. The awards will be held at the MetLife stadium, in the heart of New York.

There will be a live telecast of the celebration on Colors TV.

Musical medley

IIFA rocks will be held on the first day, in which artists from all over the world will come together to mark music composer AR Rahman's 25 glorious years in the industry. Actors Manish Paul and Riteish Deshmukh will be the hosts for the evening.

AR Rahman will be joined by Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri for a never-seen-before musical medley.

Star performers

The IIFA awards will be a star-studded event with some epic performances by Bollywood celebrities. This year there will be some performances by Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon, among others.

Alia Bhatt, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif addressing the press at an IIFA conference. Image from Twitter.

The preparations for the final show are on in full swing already. With only a few days left, actors are putting in a lot of effort to put up a great show. Shahid Kapoor gave his fans a glimpse of IIFA rehearsals by posting a boomerang video on Instagram. Here's the video:

The hosts for the evening

Since IIFA awards are known to be a mixed bag of dance, drama and comedy, this year Varun Dhawan, Karan Johar and Saif Ali Khan have been roped to host the main awards. It will be a joy to watch Dhawan, with his impeccable comic timing, match up to Saif's eloquence and Johar's spot-on sarcasm.

Varun Dhawan, Saif Ali Khan and Karan Johar at an IIFA press conference in Mumbai.

During a press conference, Johar said that he and Saif have started working on the script already. "The script is never final till the last day, therefore there is going to be a lot of improvisation," he added.

Apart from hosting the night, Dhawan will also be performing to some of his father, filmmaker David Dhawan's songs. Varun had earlier mentioned that his performance will be a tribute to his father, who has been making films for the past 28 years. Varun is currently shooting for Judwaa 2 with Jacqueline Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu. He revealed that one of the songs from his film titiled 'Oonchi Hai Building' will be launched on the IIFA stage. The song is a remake of the 1997 original starring Karishma Kapoor and Salman Khan.

Nominations

The front-runner films in the race this year are Neerja, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Pink and Kapoor and Sons. Firstpost had earlier done an extensive nomination round-up. Here's a quick guide of who's nominated for which award at IIFA 2017.

Best Performance in a Leading Role - Male

Shahid Kapoor - Udta Punjab

Ranbir Kapoor - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Shah Rukh Khan - Fan

Sushant Singh Rajput - MS Dhoni

Amitabh Bachchan - Pink

Salman Khan - Sultan

Best Performance in a Leading Role - Female

Anushka Sharma - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Alia Bhatt - Dear Zindagi

Sonam Kapoor - Neerja

Alia Bhatt - Udta Punjab

Tapsee Pannu - Pink

Best Picture

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

MS Dhoni

Neerja

Pink

Sultan

Udta Punjab

Best Director

Karan Johar - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Neeraj Pandey - MS Dhoni

Ram Madhvani - Neerja

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury - Pink

Ali Abbas Zafar - Sultan

Abhishek Chaubey - Udta Punjab

With just eight days to go, the excitement around IIFA 2017 is palpable.