Bollywood actress Rani Mukerji recently opened up about missing out on the National Film Award for her acclaimed performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's directorial Black, sharing that it was a deeply emotional moment for both her family and her fans.
Speaking to filmmaker Karan Johar at an event celebrating her remarkable 30-year journey in the film industry. The actress spoke about how the experience impacted her loved ones, while mentioning that awards were never her main goal throughout her career.
Rani Mukerji reflects on not winning National Award for Black
When Karan Johar asked, "Did it break your heart when you didn’t win the National Award for Black?”, Rani replied, "I think it broke heart of all my fans. It broke my father’s heart. It broke my mom’s heart. I think the way I was and the way I've conducted my career or my life from the time I was a teenager. I started off being actor, because my mom asked me to be an actor and I realised that through the work that I could do I could probably give my parents a better life and see them happy and comfortable and that way my dream for few years that I kept working in films."
She further added, "Then when I realised that this is a serious profession and I used to get fan mails, that time there was no social media. Through my fan mails I realised how important my fans believe in my work and how important it is for me to give them back what they want from me. I need to do better films, better roles, better performances, and that’s when I started understanding the seriousness of the profession."
Rani Mukerji also mentioned, "And when I started doing that, I think I had my blinkers on like a horse, you know and what I saw was just moving ahead, wanting to make my audiences happy, wanting to do the best for my films, make my directors happy because they are my first audience and that is something that I kept doing with or without awards because my goal was not to say win an award so that it makes me happy today."
"I think winning awards is more about the recognition that the entire team of the film gets, because if you are recognise, the team feels elated, the audience feels elated but as an actor I have to constantly keep working,” Karan Johar added in the middle, "But it hurts." Rani said, "It does hurt but it doesn’t become a criteria. "
Rani Mukerji's work front
On the work front, Rani Mukerji is gearing up for the release of the third instalment in her popular crime thriller series, Mardaani. The film is set to hit theaters on January 30, 2026. The Bollywood film is directed by Abhiraj Minawala and also stars Janki Bodiwala and Mallika Prasad in key roles.
Also Read: Padma Awards: Dharmendra, Satish Shah, Mammootty, R Madhavan named for honours
