Lagaan at 25: Aamir Khan to be honoured at Singapore International Film Festival
The actor will attend a 25th anniversary screening with director Ashutosh Gowariker
Dubai: Aamir Khan will receive the Screen Icon Award at the 37th Singapore International Film Festival, 25 years after Lagaan took Indian cinema to the Oscars.
The award recognises Asian actors who have made significant creative contributions to cinema. Khan will also attend a special presentation marking the film's 25th anniversary, alongside its director Ashutosh Gowariker, and appear in the festival's In Conversation With series.
The festival runs from 21 October to 1 November, a month earlier than its usual slot.
The film being celebrated
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India was released on 15 June 2001 and broke most of the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema at the time.
Set in 1893 under British colonial rule, it follows villagers in central India, crushed by drought and heavy taxation, who accept a wager from an arrogant British officer: beat his men at cricket and the tax is waived.
It ran well beyond conventional length, was set in a period audiences were thought to have little appetite for, and built its climax around a sport few markets outside the subcontinent associated with drama. It worked anyway, commercially and critically.
Gracy Singh starred opposite Khan, with Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Raghubir Yadav and A K Hangal among a large ensemble. A R Rahman's score produced Ghanan Ghanan, Mitwa, Radha Kaise Na Jale and O Rey Chhori.
Lagaan was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002, losing to the Bosnian film No Man's Land. It remains one of only a handful of Indian films to reach that stage.
A year of anniversary screenings
Singapore is the latest stop in a run of celebrations.
Khan attended a screening at the London Indian Film Festival in July, where he was reunited with Shelley, and took part in a conversation at BFI Southbank. The film also opened the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in August.
"As Lagaan completes 25 years, it's hard to put into words what this journey has meant. We made the film with a lot of belief, passion and honesty, never imagining the kind of love it would receive and continue to receive all these years later," Khan said around the London screening.
Who else is being honoured
Khan is one of two major honourees this year.
Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda receives the Cinema Honorary Award for his contribution to Asian cinema. Known for Nobody Knows, Like Father, Like Son, Monster and the Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters, he brings his latest film, Look Back, for its Southeast Asian premiere. Adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto's one-shot manga, it follows two girls whose shared love of drawing turns into a friendship.
The festival opens with the South Korean political thriller The Assassin(s), starring Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho. Director Hur Jin-ho and cast members Shim Eun-kyung and Park Sung-hoon will attend the opening gala.
The In Conversation With series also features Kore-eda, Shim, Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan and actor Anthony Wong.
Other names attending include South Korean director Yim Soon-rye, who chairs the Asian Feature Film Competition jury, Japanese director Koji Fukada, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa and Hong Kong filmmaker Jacob Cheung.
A festival looking inward too
Alongside the international names, SGIFF is putting local work at the centre of this edition, programming more than 25 Singaporean productions and co-productions that have played at Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice, Locarno, Berlin and Melbourne.
"Singapore's film industry is enjoying its hard-earned recognition on the world stage," programme director Thong Kay Wee said. "Many of these filmmakers found their first mentorships through SGIFF, so sharing their stories and work on Singapore screens this year is, in that sense, a homecoming."
