Mumbai, Oct 17 : Superstar Shahrukh Khan melted hearts at the recent Filmfare Awards held in Ahmedabad this year when he warmly congratulated actor Rajkummar Rao after the latter announced that he and his wife, actress Patralekhaa, are expecting their first child.

Rao, who won the award in the Best Actor Critics category for his movie, Srikanth, dedicated the award to his soon-to-be-born baby. While standing on the Filmfare stage, Rajkummar also informed Shahrukh that he and his wife Patralekhaa were expecting their first child.

Upon hearing this news, Shahrukh Khan, who was co-hosting the award night with Karan Johar and Maniesh Paul, smiled and responded with a heartfelt "Congratulations" followed by "MashaAllah" ' a moment that instantly became the emotional highlight of the evening. Not just that, he also went on to applaud Rajkummar for his impeccable performance in the movie Srikanth and called it "outstanding and absolutely well-deserved".

The actor, visibly moved, accepted the "Black lady" for his portrayal of visually impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla in the movie, Srikanth. With gratitude and emotion in his voice, Rajkummar said, 'Thank you, Filmfare, Tushar, our director, Nidhi and Bhushan, our producers, and the real Srikanth Bolla, whose life inspired us to tell the story.' Thank you, audience, for making Srikanth's success in theatres, because it's very important for films like Srikanth to do well commercially too.'

He then paused and smiled before adding, 'Thank you, Patralekhaa, forever my beautiful love. We are expecting our first child together, and I love you. This award is for my baby who is yet to come.' Later, Rajkummar took to social media to share a video from the award ceremony and wrote, 'Won the Best Active Critics Filmfare Award for Srikanth. Worked extremely hard for this film, and everything feels magical when Shah Rukh Khan says such words for your performance. Thank you, sir, thank you, Filmfare, and the real Srikanth, whose life inspired us to tell this story.'

He also thanked his wife and fans, writing, 'Thank you, Patralekhaa, my love, for always inspiring me to do good work, and mostly thank you, my audience, for giving Srikanth so much love. I'll keep working the hardest and keep entertaining you with these wonderful stories.'

/IANS