IANS/Washington
Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has been honoured with a prestigious US award in recognition of his successful effort to create debate on India’s pressing social problems through his popular TV show Satyamev Jayate.
Khan, 47, was presented with the Inaugural America Abroad Media Award along with Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and the International Centre on Non-violent Conflict (ICNC) at a function here on Monday night.
Launched in 2012, the Sunday morning show Satyamev Jayete, tackles some of India’s most pressing social problems - forced abortions of unborn girls; domestic violence; child sexual abuse; alcoholism and treatment of the elderly.
“I have no idea how the work that we started back home would interest somehow outside India,” Khan said while accepting the award in person - rare exception to his practice of not attending award shows.
“Me and my team are trying to do this show with love, because we feel that we are part of the problem and we are also part of the solution. And we need to find that. We need to question ourselves and look inside as opposed to pointing outside,” he said after the ceremony.
Khan, who was accompanied by his filmmaker wife Kiran Rao, said he was working on the next season of the show, which became so popular at home that it propelled him on to the cover of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People In the World issue this year.
“All my capabilities lie in the field of media and storytelling. So we try to combine our expertise and capabilities in storytelling and television and picking social issues we feel that can make a difference,” he said.
Khan said, though it was nice to be felicitated in the US, he was more concerned about Indian audience.
