Rakul Preet Singh (born 10 October 1990) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil films. She made her acting debut with the Kannada film Gilli (2009). She has won several awards including a SIIMA Award with three nominations for Filmfare Awards South.[2][3]
Rakul Preet Singh | |
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![]() Singh in 2022 | |
Born | (1990-10-10) 10 October 1990 (age 32) New Delhi, India |
Education | Jesus and Mary College |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 2010–present |
Partner | Jackky Bhagnani (2021–present)[1] |
Singh has worked in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil cinema with Venkatadri Express (2013), Yaariyan (2014), Loukyam (2014), Pandaga Chesko (2015), Sarrainodu (2016), Dhruva (2016), Nannaku Prematho (2016), Rarandoi Veduka Chudham (2017), Spyder (2017), Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2017), De De Pyaar De (2019), and Doctor G (2022).
Rakul Preet Singh was born on 10 October 1990 in a Sikh family in New Delhi.[4][5][6] Rakul did her schooling from Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan and later completed a degree in mathematics at Jesus and Mary College.[7][8] Her father was an army officer.[9] Her mother is Rajender Kaur and father is Kulwinder Singh.[10][11] Her younger brother, Aman Preet Singh, is set to make his Bollywood debut with film Ram Rajya.[12]
As of 2020, Singh lives in Hyderabad and has a house in Mumbai.[13]
Rakul is in a relationship with actor and producer Jackky Bhagnani since 2021.[14]
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.[15] In 2009 she made her acting debut in the Kannada film, Gilli, a remake of Selvaraghavan's 7G Rainbow Colony.[16] 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".[16] 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.[17] 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.[18][19][20]
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".[21] The film was also made in Tamil simultaneously titled as "Yuvan" with the same cast but different director.[22] In 2012, she appeared in a supporting role in the Tamil film Thadaiyara Thaakka.[23]
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[24][25] and earning her first Best Actress nomination at the 61st Filmfare Awards South.[26]
In 2014, she debuted in a starring role in Bollywood with Divya Kumar's directorial debut Yaariyan,[27] after which her third Tamil film Yennamo Yedho released. By mid-2014, she was working on three Telugu films simultaneously,[28] which were directed by Sriwass,[29] G. Nageswara Reddy,[30] 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,[31][32] with 123Telugu claiming that she was "slowly becoming a star actress".[33] 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.
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,[34] Srinu Vaitla's Bruce Lee opposite Ram Charan,[35] Sukumar's Nannaku Prematho opposite Jr. Ntr[36] and Boyapati Srinu's Sarrainodu opposite Allu Arjun.[37] 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[38] In February 2016 she signed Surender Reddy's Dhruva starring opposite Ram Charan for the second time.[39]
In early March 2016 she signed Gopichand Malineni's film Winner starring with Sai Dharam Tej for the first time.[40][41] In early July 2016, she signed to AR Murugadoss' bilingual film opposite to Mahesh Babu, titled Spyder.[42][43][44] In September 2016 she signed another Telugu film titled Rarandoi Veduka Chudham directed by Kalyan Krishna starring opposite Naga Chaitanya.[45] The movie was released on 26 May which was a huge blockbuster.[46]
In Dec 2016, she signed her next film titled Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru to pair opposite Karthi.[47] After a small sabbatical in Hindi films, she appeared in Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary starring opposite Sidharth Malhotra, released in February.[48]
In 2019, she took on a guest role in Nandamuri Balakrishna's NTR: Kathanayakudu as Sridevi. She then went on to play the female lead in Dev opposite Karthi for the second time. Singh appeared with Ajay Devgn and Tabu in Luv Ranjan's Bollywood romcom, De De Pyaar De, released on 17 May 2019.[49] The same month, she appeared in Selvaraghavan's NGK opposite Suriya. Her fifth release of 2019 was a Telugu romantic comedy film Manmadhudu 2, produced by Nagarjuna Akkineni and directed by Rahul Ravindran.[50] In the same year, she appeared in Milap Milan Zaveri's action drama Marjaavaan, alongside Ritesh Deshmukh, Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria.[51]
In 2021, Singh starred in the Chandra Sekhar Yeleti-directed film Check, alongside Nithiin and in Sardar Ka Grandson opposite Arjun Kapoor.[52][53][54] Her Telugu film Konda Polam directed by Krish alongside Panja Vaisshnav Tej was released on 8 October.[55] In her review about the film, Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India wrote about Singh that "Rakul is a delight as Obu and the dubbing for her character seems almost pitch-perfect, fitting right into the skin of the character. She's a ray of sunshine in an otherwise muted film".[56]
Her first release in 2022 came with the action film Attack, co-starring John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez, a Lakshya Raj Anand's directorial debut. It received mixed reviews.[57] This was followed by the release of Runway 34 in which she starred alongside Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan.[58] Both the films where commercial failures.[59]
Singh has seven upcoming films in various stages of production. She has signed two Tamil films: S. Shankar's vigilante-action film Indian 2 and the science fiction film Ayalaan opposite Sivakarthikeyan.[60] She has four upcoming Hindi films. She will also be featured in Indra Kumar's slice-of-life comedy Thank God alongside Devgn and Sidharth Malhotra, and Anubhuti Kashyap's Doctor G in which she is paired opposite Ayushmann Khurrana.[61][62] She will play the lead in the social family entertainer film Chhatriwali directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar.[63] Rakul will pair up with Akshay Kumar in Mission Cinderella. She also has a Tamil-Telugu bilingual titled 31 October Ladies Night.
In 2017, Singh was appointed the brand ambassador for Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme by Government of Telangana.[64] She has an active franchise of three functional training gyms of F45 Training. Two of them are in Hyderabad, located in the suburbs of Gachibowli and Kokapet, while the other is in Visakhapatnam.[65][66]
Singh was frequently featured in the Times of India's 50 "Most Desirable Woman" ranked at No. 34 in 2018[67] and No. 24 in 2019[68] and No. 14 in 2020.[69]
Singh was also featured in Hyderabad times "Most Desirable Woman" rank at No. 9 in 2018 and No. 7 in 2019.[70]
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Denotes films that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Role | Language | Notes | Ref |
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2009 | Gilli | Anitha | Kannada | ||
2011 | Keratam | Sangeetha | Telugu | Bilingual film | |
Yuvan | Meera | Tamil | |||
2012 | Thadaiyara Thaakka | Gayathri Ramakrishnan | |||
2013 | Puthagam | Divya | |||
Venkatadri Express | Prarthana | Telugu | |||
2014 | Yaariyan | Saloni | Hindi | ||
Yennamo Yedho | Nithya | Tamil | |||
Rough | Nandu | Telugu | |||
Loukyam | Chandrakala "Chandu" | ||||
Current Theega | Kavitha | ||||
2015 | Pandaga Chesko | Divya | |||
Kick 2 | Chaitra | ||||
Bruce Lee | Rishomi "Riya" | ||||
2016 | Nannaku Prematho | Divyanka / Divya | [71] | ||
Sarrainodu | Jaanu / Mahalakshmi | [72] | |||
Dhruva | Ishika | [39] | |||
2017 | Winner | Sitara | |||
Rarandoi Veduka Chudham | Bhramarambha | ||||
Jaya Janaki Nayaka | Janaki/Sweety | ||||
Spyder | Charlie | Bilingual film | [73] | ||
Shalini | Tamil | ||||
Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru | Priya Theeran | [74] | |||
2018 | Aiyaary | Sonia Gupta | Hindi | ||
2019 | NTR Kathanayakudu | Sridevi | Telugu | Special appearance | |
Dev | Meghna | Tamil | |||
De De Pyaar De | Ayesha Khurana | Hindi | |||
NGK | Vanathi | Tamil | |||
Manmadhudu 2 | Avanthika | Telugu | |||
Marjaavaan | Aarzoo Siddiqui | Hindi | [75] | ||
2020 | Shimla Mirchi | Naina Sharma | [73] | ||
2021 | Check | Manasa | Telugu | [76] | |
Sardar Ka Grandson | Radha Kaur Khasan | Hindi | [77] | ||
Konda Polam | Obulamma | Telugu | [78] | ||
2022 | Attack | Dr. Sabaha Qureshi | Hindi | [79] | |
Runway 34 | Tanya Albuquerque | [80] | |||
Cuttputlli | Divya Malhotra | [81] | |||
Doctor G | Dr. Fatima Duggal | [82] | |||
Thank God | Ruhi Kapoor | [83] | |||
2023 | Chhatriwali ![]() |
TBA | Completed | [84] | |
Meri Patni Ka Remake ![]() |
TBA | Filming | [85] | ||
TBA | Ayalaan ![]() |
Aditi | Tamil | Completed | [86] |
Indian 2 ![]() |
TBA | Filming | [87] | ||
31 October Ladies Night ![]() |
TBA | Telugu Tamil |
Bilingual film; delayed | [88] |
Year | Title | Singer(s) | Language | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Dil Hai Deewana | Darshan Raval and Zara Khan | Hindi | [89] |
Naa Dooja Koi | Jyotica Tangri and Arko Pravo Mukherjee | [90] | ||
2022 | Mashooka | Dev Negi and Asees Kaur | [91] | |
Asees Kaur and Aditya Iyengar | Telugu | |||
Tamil |
Year | Award | Category | Film | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Filmfare Awards South | Best Actress – Telugu | Venkatadri Express | Nominated | [3] |
CineMAA Awards | Best Actress (Jury) | Loukyam | Won | ||
2015 | 4th South Indian International Movie Awards | Best Actress (Telugu) | Nominated | [92] | |
Filmfare Awards South | Best Actress – Telugu | Nominated | |||
2017 | Nannaku Prematho | Nominated | [2] | ||
6th South Indian International Movie Awards | Best Actress (Telugu) | Won | [93] | ||
2018 | 7th South Indian International Movie Awards | Jaya Janaki Nayaka | Nominated | [94] |
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SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Telugu | |
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2011–2020 |
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