Shilpa Shetty arrived in Leeds on Tuesday night

Stars like Shilpa Shetty and Amitabh Bachchan have been arriving ahead of the Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards.

The five-day star-studded event is expected to attract 28,000 visitors and will be broadcast to a global audience of nearly 500 million in 110 countries.

Sheffield will host Saturday's awards and films will be launched in Bradford. Leeds, York and Hull host other events.

From Thursday, Cineworld in Bradford will be hosting the IIFA Film Festival, showing 22 classic Indian films based on the theme of "love at first sight", plus three premieres.

'Very excited'

Arriving in Leeds on Tuesday night, Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa said she was looking forward to the events.

She said: "Yorkshire is beautiful, it really is.

"I am so happy that people have been kind enough to invite us here. I am really very excited."

On Wednesday, stars of the Bollywood thriller The Train, including Emraan Hashmi and Geeta Basra, were travelling from London to York on a specially-commissioned train to attend the premiere of the film.

The main awards ceremony will take place at Sheffield's Hallam FM Arena.

A celebrity cricket match will also be held at Headingley Stadium in Leeds over the weekend.