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“The only reason film festivals call me is either to dance or to welcome the delegates.”

By Instep Desk
Tue, 11, 18

Shah Rukh Khan at the opening ceremony of the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), where he quipped about never winning a National Award.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan recently inaugurated the prestigious Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) 2018 along with Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee and veterans Amitabh Bachchan and Waheeda Rehman.

King Khan is famous for witty speeches and the one he made during the opening ceremony of the festival was no different. He impressed everyone with his self-deprecating humour yet again and said that he was invited to such film festivals either to dance or welcome people, but never for any intellectual deliberations.

“I have done 70 films so far, but the only reason film festivals call me is either to dance or come and just speak about welcoming the delegates, and being nice to people, and not do anything intellectual. Reason for that is I am not very intelligent. And I am not very smart,” revealed Shah Rukh Khan, according to The Indian Express. He further went on to say that spearheading the Kolkata Knight Riders for 12 years has actually made him “smarter” and more “intellectual” because he’s been spending time in Bengal, with all the wonderful stalwarts of cinema, and all the people he keeps meeting. However, he regrets the fact that he has never won a national award.

“Maybe, in the next 10 years, there will come a time when one of my films will get selected for an international festival of this kind of rating. It’s really unfortunate and sad, I have never got a National Award,” he said, soon after receiving a crystal trophy from the organizers of the KIFF. “The only award is what I got today, that KIFF, that Mamata di (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) so sweetly gave me. It’s a special crystal award.”

King Khan then sought the Chief Minister’s permission to “behave a little cheaply, if that’s all right” and screen the trailer of the upcoming movie Zero that stars Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif besides Shah Rukh Khan. “So I know that none of my films will ever, ever be played in a festival. They don’t deserve to, maybe. But I have got a trailer of my film Zero, so can I have your (Mamata Banerjee) permission to show the trailer for two-three minutes?”

Zero’s trailer got an overwhelming response from everyone at the film festival. Scheduled to release in December, let’s see how the movie fares at the box office.