Bollywood’s badshaah Shah Rukh Khan while addressing the opening ceremony of the Kolkata International Film Festival said that he was invited to film festivals either to dance or say some nice words to welcome people, and not 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,” he said, in an apparently zestful tone while speaking at the opening ceremony of the country’s second oldest film festival attended by a crowd of over ten thousand.
However, SRK said, he has become “smarter” and more “intellectual” after getting to know Kolkata while spearheading the Indian Premier League’s Kolkata Knight Riders for 12 years.
“And the 12 years that I have been in Kolkata with a cricket team, Kolkata Knight Riders, I am becoming smarter. And I am becoming much more intellectual, spending time in Bengal, with all the wonderful stalwarts of cinema, and all the people I keep meeting.
“So, maybe, in the next ten years, there will come a time, when one of my film 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 organisers of the KIFF.
“The only award is what I got today, that KIFF, that Mamatadi (West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) so sweetly gave me. It’s a special crystal award,” he said, to a tumultuous applause, as Banerjee seemed visibly pleased.
Khan then sought Banerjee’s permission to “behave a little cheaply” and screen the trailer of Zero.
“I know that none of my films will be ever, ever, ever,ever, ever played in a festival. They don’t deserve too, maybe. But I have got a trailer of my film Zero, so I want to request Mamatadi.”
The bollywood Baadshah then switched to a cocktail of Bengali and Hindi, requesting for Zero’s trailer to be screened.
The trailer was greeted with cheers and shouts of “Shah Rukh, Shah Rukh” from film buffs, expressing their excitement.
Zero, which also starres Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif in the lead is expected to hit screens on December 21.
