Shah Rukh Khan will be awarded La Trobe University’s highest accolade during his visit to Australia for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
La Trobe is the first Australian University to award SRK with an Honorary Doctor of Letters (honoris causa), in recognition for his efforts to support underprivileged children, women empowerment through Meer Foundation and for his achievements in the Indian entertainment industry.
Meer Foundation is a philanthropic foundation named after Shah Rukh Khan’s father Meer Taj Mohammed Khan which aims to effect change at ground level.
La Trobe University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Dewar said, “Mr Khan is a champion of societal change whose efforts to support the equality of women in India reflect La Trobe’s values of inclusiveness, equity and social justice. In the past eight years we have been proud to host India’s iconic film stars including Amitabh Bachchan, Vidya Balan and Rajkumar Hirani with the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne at La Trobe”.
Shah Rukh acknowledged that having his humanitarian endeavours recognised for the first time in Australia was a great honour. “I’m proud to be conferred with a great University like La Trobe which has a long-standing relationship with Indian culture and impressive track record in advocating for women’s equality. I feel truly privileged to receive this Honorary Doctorate and I would like to sincerely thank La Trobe for choosing to recognise my achievements in such a humbling way.”
La Trobe will present SRK with his honorary doctorate on Friday, 9 August at its Melbourne campus in Bundoora