Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has expressed the hope that IIFA awards, which will be held in Dubai in June, would open new doors for Bollywood in various parts of the world and the industry will successfully compete with Hollywood.

Noting that Hollywood films are the second largest items exported from the US after aeroplanes, he told the media here yesterday that despite India being largest film producing nation in the world with its cinema watched by more than 3.6 billion people a year, its figures do not match with Hollywood at all.

"If there are so many people watching Indian films and if we are catering to people in different parts of the world, of different culture, then I think people should accept our cinema. People need to know about our cinema. And perhaps, one day, we may compete with Hollywood as well,"

"It is with this confidence that IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) is moving forward in the world and we are organising it in Dubai, which is second home to us," he said.

Earlier, he announced that the seventh IIFA Weekend would be held in Dubai from June 14 to 17.

Hosted by the Dubai Summer Surprises, the four-day IIFA Weekend will present a series of events including world premiere of an Indian film, global business forum, charity fund-raiser fashion show, workshop, film festival and a star-studded IIFA Awards presentation ceremony.

When asked why IIFA chose Dubai as the venue, Bachchan said that Indian cinema has a large distribution network of Hindi cinema in the Middle East.