Satyajit Ray was a renaissance man, honoured to receive award in his name: Michael Douglas at IFFI

Panaji: Satyajit Ray was a ”renaissance man” and it will be a great honour to receive a lifetime achievement award named after the ”Pather Panchali” filmmaker, Hollywood star Michael Douglas said on Monday.

Douglas will be felicitated with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award during the concluding ceremony of the International Film Festival of India here. The actor, accompanied by his actor-wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, walked the red carpet at the festival on Monday.

”Thank you all for being here since it is an honour for Catherine and I and our son. Our family loves India. This is our fourth visit, first three times it is in North and now we have the pleasure, the joy and the honour of being here in Goa in the South, very grateful to IFFI to get this wonderful honour,” he said.

The 79-year-old actor said he had read the history of Satyajit Ray back in college in the 1960s while taking a film class. He became aware of some of the filmmaker’s work as well during that time.

“I think, he (Ray) sort of created, not the beginning of the Indian films but the idea of multiple jobs. He did so many things as an author, musician and editing as well as a director. So it’s a tremendous honour to receive this award and see the other people that have received it before,” the actor said.

Douglas said that when he heard about the award, he and his family were very happy. “They were happy for me… One day all of a sudden, it’s a career life achievement,” he said.

The actor said as an American actor it was a joy to be India and have a familiarity with people. The eldest son of actor Kirk Douglas, the actor has won multiple awards including two Oscars, five Golden Globe trophies as well as Cecil B DeMille award. He is most famous for his roles in films such as ”Wall Street”, ”Fatal Attraction”, ”The War of the Roses”, ”Basic Instinct”, ”The American President” and ”Wonder Boys”.