Rakul Preet Singh
Rakul Preet Singh (born 10 October 1990) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. She has won several awards including a South Indian International Movie Award, in addition to four nominations at the Filmfare Awards South.
Singh made her acting debut with the Kannada film Gilli (2009). She forayed to Telugu and Tamil cinema with the films Keratam (2011), Thadaiyara Thaakka (2012) and Venkatadri Express (2013). She went on to appear in several films in Tamil and Telugu including Loukyam (2014), Pandaga Chesko (2015), Sarrainodu (2016), Dhruva (2016), Nannaku Prematho (2016), Rarandoi Veduka Chudham (2017), Spyder (2017), Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2017), and Ayalaan (2024).
Singh entered Hindi cinema with the comedy drama Yaariyan (2014). Since the late 2010s, she has primarily acted in Hindi films, such as the romantic comedy De De Pyaar De (2019), the drama Runway 34 (2022), and the satire Doctor G (2022).
Early life
Rakul Preet Singh was born on 10 October 1990 in a Punjabi Sikh family in New Delhi. Rakul did her schooling from Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan and later completed a degree in mathematics at Jesus and Mary College. Her father was an army officer. Her mother is Rajender Kaur and father is Kulwinder Singh. Her younger brother, Aman Preet Singh, is set to make his Bollywood debut with film Ram Rajya.
Career
Debut and early roles (2009–2014)
Singh, who said that she had always dreamt of being an actress, began her career in modelling at age 18 while she was still in college.[12] In 2009 she made her acting debut in the Kannada film, Gilli, a remake of Selvaraghavan's 7G Rainbow Colony.[13] She stated that she signed up the film "with the aim to earn a little extra pocket money" and that she was unaware "how big south Indian films were". She won critical acclaim for her role in the film before returning to complete her degree and compete in the 2011 Femina Miss India pageant. Apart from the People's Choice Miss Indiatimes, she won four subtitles at the pageant including Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face, Femina Miss Talented, Femina Miss Beautiful Smile and Femina Miss Beautiful Eyes.
She returned to films in 2011, featuring opposite Siddharth Rajkumar in Keratam which was released both in Telugu and Tamil languages, though critics noted that "she got very little screen time". The film was also made in Tamil simultaneously titled as "Yuvan" with the same cast but different director.[19] In 2012, she appeared in a supporting role in the Tamil film Thadaiyara Thaakka.
In Jan 2013 she appeared in a Tamil film titled Puthagam. In November 2013 she was seen in Venkatadri Express in Telugu, the latter becoming a commercial success[21] and earning her first Best Actress nomination at the 61st Filmfare Awards South.[citation needed]
In 2014, she debuted in a starring role in Hindi with Divya Kumar's directorial debut Yaariyan, after which her third Tamil film Yennamo Yedho released. By mid-2014, she was working on three Telugu films simultaneously, which were directed by Sriwass, G. Nageswara Reddy, and Gopichand Malineni. Sriwass's Loukyam and G. Nageswara Reddy's Current Theega were her next releases. She received positive reviews for her performances in both films, with 123Telugu claiming that she was "slowly becoming a star actress". She received her second Best Actress nomination at 62nd Filmfare Awards South. Her next released film was Pandaga Chesko in which she was starred opposite Ram Pothineni and directed by Gopichand Malineni.
Breakthrough in Telugu cinema and further (2015–2018)
Singh was then selected as the female lead in half-a-dozen, four of which are high-profile Telugu films: Surender Reddy's Kick 2 opposite Ravi Teja,[29] Srinu Vaitla's Bruce Lee opposite Ram Charan,[30] Sukumar's Nannaku Prematho opposite Jr. Ntr[31] and Boyapati Srinu's Sarrainodu opposite Allu Arjun.[32] She earned her first Best Actress (Telugu) award at 6th South Indian International Movie Awards. In January 2016 she signed the film Jaya Janaki Nayaka under the direction of Boyapati Srinu opposite Bellamkonda Sreenivas[33] In February 2016 she signed Surender Reddy's Dhruva starring opposite Ram Charan for the second time.[34]
In early March 2016 she signed Gopichand Malineni's film Winner starring with Sai Dharam Tej for the first time.[35][36] In early July 2016, she signed to AR Murugadoss' bilingual film opposite to Mahesh Babu, titled Spyder.[37][38][39] In September 2016 she signed another Telugu film titled Rarandoi Veduka Chudham directed by Kalyan Krishna starring opposite Naga Chaitanya.[40] The movie was released on 26 May which was a huge blockbuster.[41]
In Dec 2016, she signed her next film titled Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru to pair opposite Karthi.[42] After a small sabbatical in Hindi films, she appeared in Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary starring opposite Sidharth Malhotra, released in February.[43]