Rani Mukerji honoured with Raj Kapoor Special Contribution Award in Mumbai
Actor Rani Mukerji has been honoured with the Raj Kapoor Special Contribution Award at the 62nd Maharashtra State Film Awards, in recognition of her three-decade career in Indian cinema and her long association with Mumbai and Maharashtra. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis presented the award at a ceremony at Ravindra Natya Mandir in Prabhadevi, Mumbai, on Wednesday, 9 September, according to Bollywood Hungama and the Free Press Journal.
Cultural Affairs Minister Ashish Shelar and members of the film fraternity attended the event, the reports said.
The other honourees
The Raj Kapoor Special Contribution Award is one of the Maharashtra government's top honours for Hindi cinema, instituted alongside the Raj Kapoor Award for lifetime achievement. According to Outlook India, this year's Raj Kapoor Award went to screenwriter Salim Khan, while composer Hridaynath Mangeshkar received the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award and actor Prasad Oak the V. Shantaram Special Contribution Award, the parallel honours for Marathi cinema.
What Rani said
Mukerji, who was born and brought up in Mumbai, said the award held a special place in her heart because it came from the state where she has spent her working life. "For me, cinema is a deep emotion. And Maharashtra is the home of that emotion," she said, according to Outlook India, adding that the city had given her an identity, an audience and a career while also becoming her home and her safe place.
On her choice of roles, she said: "I have always silently worked to represent the powerful girls and women of India through cinema that has its heart in the right place." She added that she "chose characters that felt truthful" and was "instinctively drawn to their stories, journeys and resilience".
A career of women-led films
Mukerji made her debut in the mid-1990s and became one of the leading stars of Hindi cinema with films including Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Tum, Bunty Aur Babli and Black. Over the past decade she has been associated with a run of films built around women protagonists: Mardaani and its sequel, Hichki, and Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, for which she won the National Film Award for Best Actress in 2025. No One Killed Jessica and Talaash are among the other titles cited in coverage of the award.
What happens next
The Maharashtra State Film Awards for Marathi cinema, announced at the same event, recognise the previous year's productions across acting, direction, music and technical categories, and the winners' films will be screened at state-supported festivals later in the year. For Mukerji, the honour adds to a run of recognition that began with the National Award and comes as she weighs her next projects, none of which has been formally announced.