Rahul Deshpande dedicates his National award for singing to his grandfather 

Singer-turned-actor Rahul Deshpande is on cloud nine as he was named the Best Playback Singer award for his film Me Vasantrao (2022) at the 68th National awards announced on Friday, 22 July.

Anmol Bhave also won the National award for Best Audiography (Sound Designer) for the film.

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Deshpande was elated to honour and thanked his grandfather Vasantrao Deshpande, on whose life the film was based. "This award means a lot to me," Rahul said, in a statement. "I am dedicating this award to my grandfather, Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande, because I inherited music from him. So this is [his] honour too. Although my name is on this award, the effort belongs to the entire team of the film. All these years of hard work paid off."

The singer also shared his happiness in a long post on Instagram. 

Filmmaker Nipun Dharmadhikari is also ecstatic with this win. "This moment is very precious," the director added. "The songs of Me Vasantrao are the soul of the film and Rahul Deshpande has done full justice to these songs. And we are happy that his hard work has been honoured today."

Meanwhile, Marathi cinema also won big at the 68th National awards as Amol Gole’s film Sumi also received two awards — Best Children’s Film as well as the Best Child Artiste award for its lead actors Akanksha Pingle and Divyesh Indulkar.

Actor Siddharth Menon won a Special Jury mention as an actor for his Marathi film June (2021), while Shantanu Rode's Goshta Eka Paithanichi bagged the Best Marathi Film award.