“King Khan” ruled the Piazza Grande, the iconic large square in the center of the picturesque Swiss town of Locarno, on Saturday night. Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan brought his global star status to the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival when he was honored with a lifetime achievement award, the so-called Pardo alla Carriera, or Career Leopard.
The fans, including those in the 8,000 seats on the pitch and in the other seats around it, gave the star of films such as Panthaan, Don 2 And Om, Shanti, Om a stormy ovation and thunderous applause. When the large screen in the square showed him for the first time at around 9.20 p.m. local time, arriving on the red carpet and shaking hands with Locarno’s artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro, cheers went up from the crowd.
Shortly before 10 p.m., video highlights from many of Khan’s films were shown on the screen, eliciting sustained cheers and other ecstatic reactions.
Just a few minutes later, the star took to the stage and was showered with cheers, applause and shouts of “I love you”. He received his honorary award, the Golden Leopard, from Nazarro and thanked him and the evening’s presenter, Sandy Altermatt, who is also known as a Swiss television presenter.
Khan shared with the audience how difficult the award was for him, drawing laughter. Sweating because of the hot weather, he also told the excited crowd that he was happy to be in Locarno in a square full of people and that he was honoured to be in Locarno, a “very beautiful, very cultural, very artistic and extremely hot city where so many people are crammed into a small square and it’s so hot.” He then joked, “It’s like being back home in India.”
He also thanked the crowd, saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you all for welcoming me with such wide arms – wider than on the screen.” Amid the cheers, he stretched out his arms in his trademark pose. And he added: “I love you all.”
Khan continued to show his entertainer side on stage, promising to give a more serious speech. “It’s the Locarno Film Festival. We all have to sound intellectual,” he joked, before saying a few words in Italian for his fans in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. “For those who don’t understand Italian, that means I can cook pasta and pizza.” He also talked about his trip: “The food was good. My Italian is improving – and so is my cooking.”
On a more serious note, the megastar said: “I firmly believe that cinema is the most profound and influential artistic medium of our time. I have had the privilege of being part of it for many years and this journey has taught me some lessons that I would like to share with you.” One of them was “that art is, above all, the act of affirming life.”
Khan later expressed his gratitude for his career and his fans, drawing more laughs when he said: “For 35 years I worked. I was a villain. I was a champion. I was a superhero. I was a loser. I was a detective fan and I was a very, very resilient lover.”
After flashing a smile amidst applause, the actor concluded: “I don’t usually go out on such occasions. I don’t know how to deal with people, how to talk to them. I just know how to behave a little bit – not too much.”
As part of the Locarno homage, the festival will also show Khan’s 2002 hit Devdas by director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in which the star plays an alcoholic.
The 58-year-old has been a box office magnet and ambassador of Indian cinema since his breakthrough in films such as Baazigar (1993) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). He also received praise for his portrayal of a man with Asperger’s syndrome in My name is Khan (2010) among others.
Last year he starred in three blockbuster films: Pathan, Jawan And Dunky. According to some estimates, action thriller Jawandirected by Atlee Kumar, became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time, grossing nearly $140 million.
Locarno organizers said the award was a tribute to “his remarkable career in Indian cinema, which includes more than 100 films in a stunning variety of genres.”
Nazzaro said earlier THt Hollywood Reporter “Shah Rukh Khan is the quintessence of the power of cinema.” He compared the star to the “popular glamour of a working-class hero like Marcello Mastroianni” combined with “the arrogant elegance of someone like Alain Delo.” He concluded: “In Shah Rukh Khan, I can see the evolution of Rudolph Valentino to Tom Cruise, all in one person.”
Following the award ceremony for Khan, the world premiere of Mexico 86the new film by Guatemalan director César Díaz (Our mothers). The main role is played by Bérénice Béjo (The artist) as a Guatemalan rebel who fights against the military dictatorship and has to leave her son behind.
During the first few minutes of the film, Khan’s fans, gathered at the other end of the red carpet away from the pitch, could still be heard shouting and cheering, “Shah Rukh Khan!”
The 77th Locarno Film Festival runs until August 17th.
