Click here to watch Shah Rukh Speech IFFI 2017 Goa

Shah Rukh Khan inaugurated the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa this evening. In his official welcome address, the superstar emphasised on how India’s rich history has always had a culture of storytelling and story-listening.

The superstar said, “We are a land of stories, fables, cultural history, religious history, mythology, and legends. Stories that have mesmerised us, stories that make us think, stories that make us believe, give us hope, and inspire our future generations for the larger potential. So tonight, it feels absolutely wonderful to be surrounded by storytellers of the world, at the birth-place of stories, that is India.”

SRK also pointed out how filmmaking is a labour of love, and that it should spread love all over and not tear the world apart.

“I think over the years, in the last thirty years, I have learnt one thing that films are a symbol of love, and filmmaking is about loving. And I don’t mean the love-stories I have been paddling for years. I truly believe films are made with the collaboration of hundreds of people coming together, working relentlessly for an idea they believe in, they love and want to share it with the world. This idea becomes the film that we all watch and sometimes we feel very happy watching it, sometimes we dance along with the film, at other times we get angry, disturbed or agitated, and that exactly is the magic of storytelling. The magic that has the power to touch all our senses, and in doing so, actually binding us together. The essence of storytelling is incomplete if there is no story-listener. I believe storytellers and story-listeners are, or should be like a family. There is a word in Sanskrit ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, it means bringing the world together like a family,” the 52-year-old star added.

Concluding his welcome address the king of romance highlighted that filmmakers and film-watchers should share a familial experience where even in the face of dissent and discussion the family ends up binding together.

He said, “I believe no matter what your language is, no matter which country your story comes from, and no matter what your ideology is, story telling and listening should be a familial experience, which binds us all together, makes relationships stronger even in the face of dissent and discussions as it usually happens in a family, instead of tearing us apart. And with that in mind, the International Film Festival of India’s slogan for this year (the future of Indian cinema) will make that come true. Connecting the world through stories, and if I may extend it and say connecting each and every one of us through stories and films here, in Goa tonight, and all times to come.”

(The Indian Express)