National Award 2019 winners are now speaking about their win. After Aditya Dhar, who helmed Vicky Kaushal starrer Uri: The Surgical Strike, thanked India for his win, Ayushmann Khurrana mentioned a few words over his National Award win.
Ayushmann Khurrana, along with Vicky Kaushal, won the best actor award at National Awards 2019, held some time back. He was seen in Sriram Raghavan's AndhaDhun opposite Tabu and Radhika Apte, and played one of the leads in Badhaai Ho alongside Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao and Sanya Malhotra. Both the movies released in 2018 within a week's gap in October. Ayushmann had a few words to add after bagging the prestigious awards.
Here's what his statement read:
It’s truly humbling and hugely gratifying to win the coveted National Awards. As an artist, I have always tried to back disruptive content that stands out for its quality content. Today’s honour is a validation of my hard work, my belief system, my journey in movies and my reason to be an actor in the first place.
Over and above my personal win, I’m thrilled that both the films that I have done - AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho have won at the prestigious National Awards. It again validates that people of our country want to see cinema that entertains, that they can cherish, discuss and endorse.
AndhaDhun is a path-breaking film and Sriram Raghavan deserves all the accolades for creating a new genre of cinema for Indian audiences to enjoy. I have been truly fortunate to be a part of Sriram Raghvan’s vision and congratulate my director for his genius. As an artist, AndhaDhun challenged me and I strongly feel it made me a better actor.
With Badhaai Ho again I took up a taboo topic because I believed that people would be ok to see this kind of cinema. I’m glad that a subject like Badhaai Ho also won big today and I congratulate my director Amit Sharma for his breakthrough script that became a talking point in every household.
It was a pleasure to collaborate with a forward thinking creative mind like him and again disrupt the stereotyped notions of what Hindi cinema should be. I will continue on this journey to discover and back cinema that truly stands apart and brings people back into the theatres.
