Remarks during IIFA 2006

Mammootty during the Hit Parade in Dubai in November 2005, which was conducted in honour of him.

His remarks during the 2006 IIFA Awards ceremony held at Dubai had gained a lot of media and public attention.^{[citation needed]} He openly criticized the organizers of the IIFA Awards for completely ignoring South Indian films. Mammootty suggested that the Bollywood film industry stand up to competition from the South Indian film industry before calling itself International.^{[citation needed]} He commented:

“	Indian cinema is not just Bollywood, and Hindi is not the only language. Why should our films be called South Indian cinema instead of being under the banner of Indian films