Actor Shah Rukh Khan has gone viral for urging people to ‘Google’ him while receiving an award in Switzerland. The Jawan actor was felicitated with the Pardo alla Carriera on Saturday — becoming the first Indian personality to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Locarno Film Festival.
“For those who don't know me, leave, Google me and then come back,” he had joked before introducing himself to the audience.
The Google India handle on X appeared to agree, dropping a crown emoji (to indicate ‘king’) and tagging the actor in its post.
The Instagram handle of the Locarno Film Festival remains flooded with pictures and videos of SRK from the event.
“Thank you all for welcoming me with such wide arms - wider than the ones I do on screen…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.
Videos of the actor singing his iconic song from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai during the festival have also gone viral over the weekend. The clip shows the audience singing the song in unison with Khan soon joining the singers. The crowd erupted in cheers as the superstar added his voice to the chorus.
The festival also screened his 2002 hit Devdas from director Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
The festival is held every year in Switzerland and shares hundreds of international independent films. The Pardo d'oro or Golden Leopard is considered its grand prize and ‘rewards the best film in the Concorso internazionale’.
“Locarno Film Festival was born in the aftermath of the Second World War. It offered a stage for revival, freedom of art and expression for talents from all over the world eager to tell stories in new, different ways. Since its inception, Locarno has been home to the most daring, avant-garde, irreverent and innovative forms of films – screened in their uncut, uncensored versions,” read an excerpt from the festival website.