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National Film Awards 2026: Aanand L Rai calls first documentary award ‘special’;  says Dhanush’s win makes him ‘a little scared’

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Updated: Sep 22, 2026 23:24 IST
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National Film Awards 2026: Aanand L Rai calls first documentary award ‘special’;  says Dhanush’s win makes him ‘a little scared’

Aanand L Rai (Photo/ANI)

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Kevadia (Gujarat) [India], September 22 (ANI): The 72nd National Film Awards ceremony saw writer-director Aanand L Rai receive the Best Direction award in the non-feature film category for his documentary ‘Statue Of Unity: Ekta Ka Prateek’. President Droupadi Murmu presented the award at a ceremony held in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, on Tuesday. 
The event was held outside New Delhi for the first time. 
The 2024 documentary, narrated by Rai’s longtime collaborator Akshay Kumar, looks at the making of the Statue of Unity and the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Speaking to ANI after receiving the award, Rai said the recognition was special for him as it was his first National Award for a documentary. He also spoke about learning a new way of storytelling while making the film.
“It means a lot to me. Not just because it’s a National Award, but because it’s my first award for a documentary. And what I like the most is that, even after making so many films, there was something that I didn’t know. And it’s a new form of storytelling. And after doing so much work, if you debut in something, it has a different feeling. It is such a learning experience. It’s a new form of storytelling. I made some mistakes in the first one. But I feel that if I ever do a documentary again, I will work better than this. But the most important thing is that the people I knew about in the documentary, this time I felt that I knew so little about them.”
Tags:#National film awards 2026#Aanand l rai#Non-feature film#Statue of unity#Ekta ka prateek#Documentary#Akshay kumar#National award#Indian documentary#Indian cinema#Dhanush
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