Kabir Bedi Honoured In Rome

Veteran actor Kabir Bedi was recently honoured for his performance in the Italian TV series, Sandokan, at the Roma Fiction Fest, Italy. The organisers dedicated an entire day to the show to celebrate its 40th anniversary. “It felt fantastic to receive a red-carpet welcome at the festival. It was very emotional for me to see the cast together after all these years. The retrospective included a six-hour bingewatching session of the original series. In the past, the Italian Republic has also honoured me formy body of work with a Knighthood (Cavaliere),” says Bedi.

At the event, the 69-yearold spoke about the show being the most-successful TV series in European television history, and how its success in the ’70s made him a star across the continent, and most of South America. “It gave me the confidence and the financial means to push onwards to Hollywood,” adds the actor, who has been part of Hollywood movies like The Thief Of Baghdad (1978) with Roddy McDowall, Ashanti (1979) with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, and the Bond film, Octopussy (1983) with Roger Moore. “Sandokan gave me more than a foothold in international cinema; it gave me the world,” says Bedi.

The actor has also done several Hindi films, and last year, was seen in a cameo in the Indian TV show, Buddha. Besides that, he has his hands full with other projects. “Last month, I attended the premiere of my English film, Bazodee, starring Machel Montano, at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. My Malayalam film, Anarkali, with Prithviraj, released recently, and was successful. I have a role in director Rohit Shetty’s next. And next year, I have a major role in filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker’s next with Hrithik Roshan,” says Bedi.