Vancouver Bollywood Award organizers blame staffer for ‘racist’ directive

Organizers of the already controversial Times of India Film Awards slated for next month in Vancouver are blaming allegations of racial bias on a slip-up by a staff member.

The lavish gala to honour Bollywood's best — which will cost B.C. taxpayers $9.5 million to stage — came under fire last week after for an apparent directive that appeared to bar the hiring of South Asian security guards and drivers.

Someone reportedly told companies contracted to provide those services that the program didn't want "brown" drivers or guards for fear they'd be star-struck when dealing with Bollywood celebrities, according to CTV News. Most Canadians don't know the stars, but they're huge in the South Asian community.

Laura Ballance, a media spokeswoman for the event, apologized and blamed the remarks on an unidentified member of the logistics team, the Globe and Mail reported. The individual is still working.

“It was not a directive from the Times of India Group," she said. "It was a word choice by one staff member within dozens of staff members. It is very unfortunate and they have apologized for that."

[ Related: B.C.'s Bollywood award show allegedly tried to avoid 'brown' guards, limo drivers ]

Ballance said the request was not meant to be racist but to stress that the event be staffed by the "most professional" people, CTV News reported. The concern was raised because of what happened at a different Bollywood awards show, not in Canada.

"It was in another country where a driver had one of these celebrities in the car, took him to his home, and asked him to do autographs and pictures with his family before he delivered him to the event," Ballance said.

It's not clear how widely the directive was circulated. An executive with Genesis Security Group, which is handling most of the security for the event and visiting celebrities, said he never heard about it.

“To my knowledge, they’ve never come to us and put in a no-hiring policy for certain types of people at all," vice-president Ashley Meehan told the Globe. "To us, it has always just been that the people are properly trained and qualified."

Genesis will have more than 200 people working at the event, including those of South Asian heritage, he said.

"We will have people from all backgrounds," said Meehan.

The directive nevertheless upset Raj Chouhan, a Vancouver-area MLA, who said he was appalled.

"They should be treating people with respect," he told CTV News. "There should be no discrimination whatsoever."

[ Related: B.C. Premier Christy Clark pushed for Bollywood awards show before May election: report ]

The three-day event, April 4-6, has been under fire almost since B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced it in January as a kind of consolation prize after missing out on hosting the better known International Indian Film Academy awards.

Joseph Sabbas, an official with the company that owns and operates the academy awards, told the Globe the government made a "request that was almost a demand" that their event take place ahead of the May 14 B.C. election. When the request was refused, the government cut its funding offer. The government has denied Sabbas' claims.

The B.C. Liberal government's huge grant for the Times of India awards show also upset the province's troubled film- and TV-production sector. It's been pleading with Victoria to help stem the exodus of productions to Ontario, which offers more lucrative tax credits.

The Liberals have also been embroiled in a scandal over a party strategy to win ethnic votes that used government funding to compile data.