Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was his usual charming and witty self at the 77th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where he received the prestigious Pardo alla Carriera Award-Locarno Tourism, or 'career leopard', for his contribution to cinema. Italian filmmaker Francesco Rosi, American singer-actor Harry Belafonte, and Malaysian director Tsai Ming-Liang have been previous recipients of the award. The 58-year-old Shah Rukh, the first Indian to be conferred the honour, was presented with the award at the Piazza Grande square packed with an 8,000-strong crowd on Saturday evening.
In his acceptance speech, Shah Rukh thanked the audience and Locarno Film Festival's artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro, for their warm welcome. "I want to thank you all for welcoming me with such wide (open) arms, wider than the ones I do on screen, to this really pretty, very beautiful, cultural, artistic, and extremely hot city of Locarno.
So many people stuffed in a little square and so hot, it's just like being at home in India. Thank you so much for having me here, it's been a wonderful last two evenings, everybody, including Nazzaro..
." he said. "They have been wonderful, the food has been nice, my Italian is improving and so has my cooking.
I can cook pasta and pizza, and also I'm learning (Italian) here in Locarno," he added. Cinema, Shah Rukh said, is the "most profound and influential artistic medium of our age". "Art is the act of affirming life above all.
It transcends every manma.