The honour comes with a 25th-anniversary screening of Lagaan, where Aamir will share the stage with director Ashutosh Gowariker at the festival's October edition.
Aamir Khan is headed to Singapore in October, and this time he's not selling a film. He's being handed one of the bigger honours on the Asian festival circuit.
The 37th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) will present Aamir with its Screen Icon Award, according to Variety. The recognition arrives alongside a special anniversary slot on the festival calendar: a 25th-anniversary screening of Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, with director Ashutosh Gowariker joining Aamir for the presentation.
Lagaan turning 25 is the kind of milestone that sneaks up on you. Released in 2001 and set in 1893 under British rule, the film followed villagers who wager their tax burden on a cricket match against their colonial rulers, a premise that had no business working as commercial cinema and somehow became one of Hindi film's most enduring exports. It picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film the following year, losing to the Bosnian film No Man's Land, and it remains the reference point whenever someone tries to make a three-hour period drama with a runtime nobody complains about.
Aamir will also take part in SGIFF's "In Conversation With" series, a dialogue strand that this edition features Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu, Korean actor Shim Eun-kyung, Hong Kong director Peter Chan Ho-sun and actor Anthony Wong.
Kore-eda is arriving with heavier hardware of his own. The Shoplifters director will receive SGIFF's Cinema Honorary Award, its top prize for lasting contributions to Asian cinema, and his manga adaptation Look Back gets its Southeast Asian premiere at the festival.
The opening night belongs to someone else entirely. SGIFF kicks off with The Assassin(s), Hur Jin-ho's South Korean thriller led by Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho. Hur and co-stars Shim Eun-kyung and Park Sung-hoon are expected at the opening, and the festival's programme this year stretches to more than 25 Singapore productions that have already been through Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice and Melbourne.
What's interesting for Aamir watchers is the timing. Bollywood Hungama's own reporting notes he's been in talks with Sajid Nadiadwala and R. Balki around an ambitious superhero project, though nothing there is confirmed yet. For now, Singapore gets the honour, and Lagaan gets its lap of the anniversary circuit.
SGIFF runs October 21 to November 1. Whether Aamir's Singapore trip ties into anything on the work front back home is a question for after the festival wraps.
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