A Cross Hills photographer will mingle with the stars when he covers the Bollywood film awards in Yorkshire.

Morgan O'Driscoll, 41, won the "official photographer" role for the awards, which is one of many events he will cover as part of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) weekend in June.

He has already covered the IIFA curtain raiser event at Madame Tussauds Museum and the High Commission of India, in London.

Among the guests he met and photographed at the curtain raiser were Sienna Miller, Ken Livingstone and Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

Morgan said: "This is all very exciting and it allows me to open up new channels for business. I think meeting the people is going to be the most interesting. I just love photographing people.

"Photography is fascinating, just the way it all works - it is quite a magical thing."

Dad-of-two Morgan, who will have exclusive access to the stars, added: "I have an honest love of photography and it is just as exciting now as it was when I first picked up a camera."

Since the age of five, Morgan has been fascinated by photography and after working for over 15 years in the print industry he revisited his passion in 2001 to set up a photographic business.

He started out doing portraits and wedding photography, before moving into architectural and PR photography, and he has had photographic exhibitions in both London and Jersey.

The job of official IIFA photographer was spotted on a website by a work colleague who said that he should apply. He did and he was awarded the role.

The IIFA weekend, which runs from June 7-10, will be broadcast to a global audience of around 300 million and is set to attract thousands of fans of Indian cinema to the region.

Planned attractions, which will take place in Bradford, Leeds, York and Sheffield, include a celebrity cricket match, film workshops and the premiere of a film from Indian cinema.

Morgan is also set to go to India with the IIFA to photograph on the set of a Bollywood film and an exhibition of his work will be displayed in the National Media Centre, in Bradford.

For more information about the event log on to www.iifa.com.