SRK To Receive Honorary Leopard Achievement Award At Locarno Film Festival 2024
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will be honoured by the Locarno Film Festival with its Honorary Leopard Achievement award.
Shah Rukh Khan, fondly referred to as ‘King Khan’ and the ‘Badshah of Bollywood’ by his fans, rose to fame in the early 1990s. SRK, equally famous for his off-screen persona, began his acting journey with hit television shows like ‘Fauji’ and ‘Circus’. He later marked his Bollywood debut with the 1992 film ‘Deewana’. SRK quickly gained popularity for his charming and versatile acting skills. Throughout his career, he delivered numerous blockbuster movies, including ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, ‘Devdas’, and ‘My Name Is Khan’.
SRK went on a hiatus after his 2018 movie ‘Zero’ tanked at the box office. In 2023, he made a smashing comeback to movies with three hits – ‘Pathaan’, ‘Jawan’ and ‘Dunki’.
The Bollywood superstar will now be honoured by the Locarno Film Festival with its Honorary Leopard Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding career in Indian cinema spanning more than 100 films “in a breathtaking multitude of genres,” as per Variety.
“To welcome a living legend like Shah Rukh Kahn in Locarno is a dream come true,” said Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro in a statement.
Giona A. Nazzaro went on to praise Shah Rukh Khan as “a king who has never lost touch with the audience that crowned him,” adding that “This brave and daring artist has always been willing to challenge himself while remaining true to what his fans all over the world eagerly expect from his films.”
Previous recipients of the award include Tsai Ming-liang, Francesco Rosi, Claudia Cardinale, Johnnie To, Harry Belafonte, Mario Adorf, Jane Birkin, and Costa-Gavras.
SRK will be receiving the award on August 10 on the Swiss fest’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande open-air venue. The Bollywood megastar’s iconic 2002 Hindi movie ‘Devdas’ will also screen, followed by an onstage conversation on August 11.
‘Devdas’, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and co-starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit Nene, scored a BAFTA nomination and won numerous Indian awards. It marked the first time many Western audience members were exposed to mainstream Bollywood.
For the unversed, Shah Rukh Khan was included among the Variety500 list of top 500 global entertainment business leaders in 2023. In the process, Variety noted that SRK “reinvented himself as an action hero.”
Apart from his infectious screen presence, Shah Rukh Khan also has a production company Red Chillies Entertainment. He also co-owns the Indian Premier League cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders and the Caribbean Premier League team Trinbago Knight Riders.
Coming back to Locarno Film Festival, the 77th edition of it will run from August 7 to August 17.
