69th National Film Awards: Esha Deol's film Ek Duaa gets special mention in non-feature category, actress reacts 

Still from Ek Duaa

The 69th National Film Awards was announced on Thursday. Winners in the non-feature and feature film categories were announced by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Esha Deol's film 'Ek Duaa' got a special mention in the non-feature film category.

A proud moment for Esha as its her first film as a producer which won million of hearts with her performance. The short film ‘Ek Duaa', tells a powerful story about female feticide. Through its compelling storytelling, the film effectively raises awareness about the consequences of this social problem.

Esha took to her social media handle to express her joy on her film getting a special mention at the prestigious awards. "Over the moon as my film EK DUAA has won at the 69th NATIONAL AWARDS. As a producer & actor in this film to get this recognition in the non feature special mention award means the world to me. The subject of our film is about female foeticide ,save the girl child & for this to get recognition at the National awards is so overwhelming," she wrote along with a poster of the film.

"I want to thank everyone & specially my fans for their love support prayers & duaas . Congratulations to the entire team of Ek Duaa & specially my director Ramkamal Mukerjee for making this film together with me," she added.

'Ek Duaa' marked Esha's return to acting after a while. Post that, she featured in 2 web series- Ajay Devgn starrer Rudra: The Edge of Darkness and Suniel Shetty's Hunter Tootega Nahi Todega.

In a recent interview with Bombay Times, Esha spoke revealed that Dharmendra originally resisted her decision to enter Bollywood. She, while talking about it, shared, "It comes from him being an orthodox Punjabi male; they are known to be very protective of the women in their families. This is sort of a way of showing how protective he is, and nothing else. Time takes its own course, and everything falls into place eventually."

The actress attributed her decision to begin working at the age of 18 and become financially independent to her family's female strength. She said that she grew up in a family full of strong women, including her grandmother, aunt, cousins, and mother Hema Malini. Many of the women around her are strong-willed and goal-oriented. So the fact that she opted to start working and being financially independent at the age of 18 stems from there.