SRK Accepts Pardo Alla Carriera Award, Admits Can't Pronounce the Name; Speech Goes Viral | Watch

Shah Rukh Khan was honoured with the prestigious Pardo Alla Carriera Award at the Locarno Film Festival. The festival took place in Switzerland on Saturday. Shah Rukh flew down to the country to accept the honour. The Bollywood superstar was honoured with the award for his contribution towards cinema. Accepting the honour, Shah Rukh admitted he found it difficult to pronounce the name of the award.

Speaking to a crowd of reportedly 8,000, Shah Rukh began his speech by witly saying, “Thank you all for welcoming me with such wide arms – wider than the ones I do on screen.”

As reported by Variety, SRK went on to say, “It’s a very beautiful, very cultural, very artistic, and extremely hot city of Locarno.” He also included a nod to the hot summer of Switzerland. “So many people stuffed up in a little square and so hot. It’s just like being home in India,” he said.

“I truly believe cinema has been the most profound and influential artistic medium of our age,” he said.

“I’ve had the privilege of being part of this for many years, and this journey has taught me a few lessons,” Shah Rukh reflected.

“Art is the act of affirming life above all. It goes beyond every man-made boundary into a space of liberation. It need not be political. It need not be polemical. It need not sermonize. It need not intellectualize. It need not moralize. Art and cinema only need to say what it feels from the heart, to express its own truth. And that, to me, is the biggest creativity, honestly,” SRK shared.

Talking about creativity and emotions, the superstar said, “There is no creativity without love, which is a language which transcends all languages and is comprehended by everyone around the world. So creativity, love, and giving joy to me, is one and the same thing.”

“I’ve been a villain, I’ve been a champ, I’ve been a superhero, I’ve been a zero, I’ve been a rejected fan, and I’ve been a very, very resilient lover,” he said before bringing back his trademark humour to confess that he still can’t pronounce the name of the award.

“This award here, which, for the life of me, I’ve been trying… I can’t pronounce,” he joked. When the host helped him by saying the title of the award again, he joked, “The Leopard award for being the most awesome in the world, in the history of humility and kindness and goodness.”

He concluded his speech by promising that he will go the extra mile to make his fans happy. “With the promise that awards like this encourage me to keep on trying to embody all the facets of life, to embody all the emotions, and to try to give that one more take, one more shot, one more emotion, and hopefully a little bit of love, so that all of you feel a little joyful,” Shah Rukh said. Watch a part of his speech below:

This is the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.