Kabir Bedi is Honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award in Venice

Veteran Actor Kabir Bedi was honoured with the lifetime achievement award in Venice on Saturday. 

The actor was presented with the Filming Italy Movie Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Production Bridge. 

The actor has been an unofficial ambassador of Indo-Italian relations for nearly four decades. 

In his acceptance speech, Kabir said, “I have tried to make people in Italy focus on India for many years, and people in India focus on Italy."He continued, "Since the time of `Sandokan,` I`ve done over six major series in Italy and not many people realize that really Bollywood and Hollywood are a far lesser part of my life than my career in Italy.”

Kabir admitted that he couldn’t be a part of mainstream Indian cinema unless he danced and sang. He thus began looking for work outside India and that’s when Italy welcomed him with open arms. 

Kabir caught the attention of the audiences in Italy when he appeared in the popular television series ‘Sandokan’ as a pirate hero. Many motion pictures and shows featuring the famous character soon followed. 

Besides ‘Sandokan’ Kabir has played prominent roles in the famous ‘The Bold and The Beautiful, ‘Dynasty’, ‘Murder She Wrote’, ‘Knight Rider’, ‘Highlander: The Series', and so on. 

The award was presented to Bedi by producer and actor Tiziana Rocca and Roberto Stabile, the head of the international department of the Italian national audiovisual body ANICA, reported Variety.

He was well known for his villainous role as Gobinda in James Bond’s 1983 movie ‘Octopussy.’