“King Khan” ruled the Piazza Grande, the iconic big square in the center of picturesque Swiss town Locarno, on Saturday night. Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan brought his global star power to the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival as 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 square and more in various spots around it, gave the star of films like Panthaan, Don 2 and Om Shanti Om a rousing ovation and thunderous applause. Even when the big movie screen in the square first showed him arriving on the red carpet around 9:20 p.m. local time and shaking hands with Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, a roar went through the crowd.
Just before 10 p.m., the screen showed a highlight video of many of Khan’s films, which drew constant cheers and other ecstatic reactions.
Just minutes later, the star took to the stage to be showered in cheers, applause and screams of “I love you!” He received his honorary Golden Leopard award from Nazarro and thanked him and the evening’s host, Sandy Altermatt, who is also known for her work as a Swiss TV host.
Khan shared with the audience how heavy the award was, drawing laughs. Sweating due to the hot weather, he also told the excited crowd that he was happy to be in Locarno in a square full of people, and he was honored to be in Locarno, a “very beautiful, very cultural, very artistic and extremely hot city with so many people stuffed up in a little square and so hot.” He then joked: “It’s just like being 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 the ones I do onscreen.” He stretched out his arms to cheers. And he added: “I love you all.”
Khan kept showing his entertainer side onstage, promising to give a more serious speech. “It’s the Locarno Film Festival. We all need to sound intellectual,” he quipped before saying a few words in Italian for his fans in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. “The food has been nice. My Italian is improving — so has been my cooking,” he added before explaining. “For those who don’t understand Italian, it means I can cook pasta and pizza.”
On a more serious note, the mega-star said: “I truly believe cinema has been the most profound and influential artistic medium of our age. I’ve had the privilege of being part of this for many years, and this journey has taught me a few lessons I’d like to share with you.” Among them was, “that art is the act of affirming life above all.”
Khan later expressed his gratitude for his career and fans and drew more laughs, saying: “For 35 years, I’ve been working. I’ve been a villain. I’ve been a champ. I’ve been a superhero. I’ve been a zero. I’ve been a detective fan, and I’ve been a very, very resilient lover.”
After flashing a smile amid cheers, the actor concluded: “I normally don’t go out for occasions like this. I don’t know how to relate to people, how to talk to them. I just know how to act a little bit — not too much.”
As part of the Locarno tribute, the festival is also screening Khan’s 2002 hit Devdas from director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in which the star plays an alcoholic.
The 58-year-old has been a box office draw and ambassador for Indian cinema since breakthrough performances in such movies as Baazigar (1993) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). He also earned 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 — Pathaan, Jawan and Dunki. According to some estimates, action-thriller Jawan, directed by Atlee Kumar, became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time with close to $140 million.
Locarno organizers said the award pays tribute “to his remarkable career in Indian cinema, consisting of more than 100 films in a breathtaking multitude of genres.”
Nazzaro previously told The Hollywood Reporter that “Shah Rukh Khan is the quintessential power of cinema.” He compared the star to the “popular glamor of a hero of the working class, like Marcello Mastroianni,” combined with “the arrogant elegance of someone like Alain Delo.” He concluded: “In Shah Ruhk Khan, I can see the trajectory from Rudolph Valentino to Tom Cruise, and it’s all there in one person.”
The presentation of the award to Khan was followed by the world premiere of Mexico 86, the new film from Guatemalan director César Díaz (Our Mothers). It stars Bérénice Béjo (The Artist) as a Guatemalan rebel fighting against the military dictatorship and having to leave her son behind.
During the first few minutes of the film, Khan’s fans, who were crowded around the far end of the red carpet away from the square, could still be heard chanting “Shah Rukh Khan!” and cheering.
The 77th Locarno Film Festival runs through Aug. 17.