Aishwarya performing at IIFA Awards 2009

You heard this here first. Sonam Kapoor is all set to make her stage debut at IIFA this year. Aishwarya Bachchan too has been confirmed and so has Kareena Kapoor. Aishwarya will be dancing at the 10th IIFA awards to be held in Macau from June 11.

The show will be hosted by Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta and Boman Irani. But one of the highlights each year, the movie premier, has been done away with.

Explains IIFA director Sabbas Joseph, “It can"t be helped. The movie premiere had to be cancelled this year because of the ongoing strike of new releases in Bollywood. Two big films were ready to be premiered at IIFA this year. I shall refrain from mentioning their names. But the imbroglio did away with the premiere."

As a substitute, IIFA this year has the world-famous Cirque de Soleil performing for the audience. “We believe audiences won"t get a chance to miss the world premiere once they see the Cirque de Soleil performing."

Why Macau?

Says Sabbas,“Because we feel it"s the Las Vegas of the East. In this the tenth year of IIFA"s existence we wanted either the US or China to be our venue. We chose China because we feel it could be a gateway for Bollywood to the West. We also hope to end the deadlock between India and China over the exchange of cinema. We haven"t come away from one venue without opening up doors for Bollywood. We"re confident this would be the case in China."