Key Points

The actress, who won the Best Actress award for her powerful role in the film, recalled that she had just completed a Griha Pravesh puja in her newly redone office, a space which was once her father Ram Mukerji's room. Sitting there with her mother, speaking about the "memories" that the room held, suddenly a message popped up on her phone. "I won the National Award," she told her mother in disbelief.

"I'll take you back to the moment when I got the news about winning the National Award. I was at the place where my dad passed. I had redone that space and made it into my office. And I was doing a Griha Pravesh puja that day. I finished the puja, sat down, and my mom had also come to see the new space. I was just telling her that the place where I did the puja was daddy's room, and we'd spent so much time there. So that entire day, I was feeling my dad's presence very strongly. I had him in my mind while I was doing the puja and while I was meditating," Rani told ANI.

"And when I sat on the chair, I was just talking to mom about how the space brought back so many memories when I suddenly got a message and a call saying I had won the National Award. And I was like, 'Oh my God.' This was my father's wish for many years while I was in the industry. He really rooted for me every year, hoping I would win for one of my performances, and it never happened while he was alive," she added.

She went on to recall how her mother, soon after Rani shared the news, started "howling" and "crying" because it was a long-awaited dream for her dad.

"It just felt so surreal because I told mom, 'Mom, I got a message--I won the National Award.' She couldn't believe it. She was like, 'What?' I said, 'I got a message that I won the National Award for Mrs. Chatterjee.' She took a beat to understand, and then she started howling. She started crying, and she said, 'If dad was here, he would be so happy.' I said, 'Yeah, I just feel like dad made this happen. Because I was feeling his presence so strongly. His aashirvaad that day. Absolutely. But he wasn't there to see it. He's somewhere out there, blessing me, and feeling happy.'"

Though Rani's little daughter Adira couldn't attend the ceremony, that didn't stop her from celebrating her mom's big win. Rani shared how Adira, along with Karan Johar's kids Yash and Roohi, watched the ceremony live at home.

"They were all watching it live because my daughter wanted to be with me on this special day. But we got to know that children under 14 are not allowed. So, obviously, she wasn't allowed to attend, but she was watching it. Karan's children were also watching it with her. Yash and Roohi come and do taekwondo classes with Adira. That day, the taekwondo teacher and all my house staff, along with Adira, Yash, and Roohi, were watching the ceremony together. They were so excited. When Karan's shots would come on screen, Yash and Roohi would scream, 'My papa is on TV!' And when I was shown, Adira got very excited. So, the children watched it together," she said.

At the ceremony, Rani looked stunning in a brown Sabyasachi saree, but it was her necklace, engraved with Adira's initials, that truly caught eyeballs.

"But I wore it for Adira," Rani added with a smile. "I said, 'Babu, you can't be with me, but I'm going to take you with me. That's so nice.'"

For an actress who gave nail-biting performances in films like 'Black' and 'Paheli,' the honour felt long overdue to her fans. Rani was honoured with the National Award for Best Actress for her performance in the legal drama 'Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway', which was released in the theatres in 2023.

- ANI