Actor Dhanush attended a major blood donation drive and welfare event earlier this Sunday. At the event, he addressed the discourse surrounding the National Award for his 2024 film Raayan, directed by him and starring him in the lead role. Raayan won the Best Tamil Film award. At the time of the announcement, several audiences disagreed with the 72nd National Film Awards jury's decision to present the award to the Dhanush film over what they deemed other, more deserving candidates such as Meiyazhagan, Amaran and Maharaja.

During his speech at the event this Sunday, Dhanush agreed with the general consensus that other films deserved the award more as compared to the 2024 film. The actor-filmmaker respected the audience's opinion. However, at the same time, Dhanush noted that many of his other films also deserved the award at the time of their releases but did not get it.

The actor argued that there was no such support from the audience for the lack of National Awards for his films such as Pudhupettai, Raanjhanaa, Vada Chennai, Karnan, and Maryan. He recognised that these awards are not meant to happen for films on some occasions, regardless of how good they might be. "This time, one of my films received the award," Dhanush noted, suggesting that it was destined for Raayan. The actor's comments come on the same day on which the film celebrates its second release anniversary.

The film earned mixed reviews from critics when it hit theatres two years ago. However, it became a commercially successful film. According to data from the box office tracker Sacnilk, the film earned more than 150 crore from theatres worldwide at the time of its release. It is one of the two highest-grossing films in Dhanush's career, the other being Tere Ishk Mein.