MUMBAI: IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan has announced the nominations for the Idea IIFA Awards 2008. He also announced the opening of voting lines for the IIFA awards to audiences of Indian cinema across the world.

The Idea IIFA awards 2008 would be held in Bangkok on 8 June.

This year, Guru, Chak De India, Jab We Met, Om shanti Om, Life In A Metro and Partner will be fighting for best picture category. For best performance (male) Abhishek Bachchan (Guru), Akshay Kumar (Bhool Bhulaiyaa), Salman Khan (Partner), Shah Rukh Khan (Chak De India) and Shahid Kapoor (Jab We Met) are the nominees. Aishwarya Rai (Guru), Deepika Padukone (Om Shanti Om), Kareena Kapoor (Jab We Met), Tabu (Cheeni Kum) and Vidya Balan (Bhool Bhulaiyaa) will fight it out for the best actress award.

The announcement of the nominations was done as a result of the industry voting for the IIFA awards in March. Results of the industry voting were audited by PriceWatehouse Coopers, the auditing firm for the IIFAs and Oscars.

Now fans of Indian cinema can cast their votes till the end of May on the official website for IIFA awards.

Bachchan said, "Nothing celebrates the grandeur of Indian cinema as extravagantly as the IIFAs. It is indeed a great pleasure to announce the nominations for IDEA IIFA Awards 2008 and to open the voting for the coveted awards on IIFA Buzz.com."

Idea Cellular chief marketing officer Pradeep Shrivastava said, "IIFA Awards offers us the best platform to demonstrate the true essence of mobile and entertainment convergence. Our customers will have access to specially created merchandise, contests, video and MMS downloads and several other value added services."