Fans of Indian cinema will have plenty to celebrate at this year’s Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which returns from Oct 21 to Nov 1, with one of the industry’s most respected and influential storytellers – Aamir Khan – set to receive the Screen Icon Award.
He will also be the first Indian actor to receive this award from the festival, which honours Asian actors who have made a profound impact as creative forces in film. Past recipients include Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh and China’s Fan Bingbing.
With a remarkable career spanning over three decades, Aamir is renowned for a filmography that blends commercial entertainment with socially conscious narrative themes, as seen in the critically acclaimed Hindi films Lagaan (2001), 3 Idiots (2009) and Dangal (2016) – the latter becoming the highest-grossing Indian film globally.
Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, Lagaan is set in colonial times and follows a rural farmer named Bhuvan, played by Aamir, who hastily assembles a ragtag cricket team with the hopes of beating the British team in order to avoid paying the high taxes (lagaan) levied on them.
The three-day match is staged as a sweeping ensemble piece, following each player’s redemption through interpersonal strife. These range from rekindled rivalries to caste prejudice, which threatens to splinter the team. By the end of the games, individual wins are celebrated as communal triumph in this classic sports epic.
The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. It also received an official Digital 4K restoration and was re-released this year to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary.
The 37th SGIFF programme lineup will feature Lagaan as a Special Presentation under the festival’s Landmark section, which showcases new restorations of international classics.
According to the festival’s website, the screening and Q&A session will take place at Golden Village Vivocity on Oct 23 with the legendary actor himself and Ashutosh (whose directorial resume includes 2004’s Swades and 2008’s Jodha Akbar) in attendance.
“Given the film’s lasting cultural impact and its strong connection with audiences in Singapore and across the region, we felt that this was a great fit for our festival programme,” SGIFF programme director Thong Kay Wee told tabla!
Audiences will also get another opportunity to hear directly from Aamir Khan as part of the festival’s “In Conversation With” series. The two-hour dialogue will be held at the Marina Bay Sands Grand Ballroom on Oct 22, with tickets priced at S$10 each.
“Sessions like this open up new access points for audiences to engage directly with the actors and storytellers they admire – bringing larger-than-life screen presences off the reel and onto a real stage alongside the people who’ve followed their work for years,” Mr Thong explained.
“Nurturing that kind of direct connection between artist and audience is very much what SGIFF is here to do,” he added.
