Rakul Preet Singh Biography

Rakul was born to Rajender Singh and Kulwinder Singh on October 10, 1990 in Delhi. Since her college days, Rakul was inclined towards modeling and acting. Though born in a Punjabi family, Rakul considers Delhi as her native place. While she was pursuing her college, she even participated in the Femina Miss India pageant 2011 and ended up in the fifth position apart from winning five titles which included 'Miss India People’s Choice'.

Rakul was born in New Delhi on October 10, 1990, to Punjabi Sikh parents, Rajender Singh and Kulwinder Singh. She mentioned that her name ‘Ra-kul’ is actually the first letters of her parents. Her father served in the Indian army for a long time and she also has a brother, Aman Preet Singh who starred in a short film 'Rock n Roll' directed by Chandu Hugigella. Having an Army background and studying in an Army School, Rakul always gave importance to fitness and she continues to be a fitness freak.

Early Career:

During her modelling days itself, she made her debut in Kannada with the film ‘Gilli’, a remake of Selvaraghavan's '7/G Rainbow Colony' in the year 2009. Rakul now claims that she did the movie 'Gilli' only for some pocket money and was not aware of the magnanimity of the South Indian Film Industry. Though she received a good response for her performance, she chose to concentrate on her academics after the first movie. In 2011, she made her debut in Telugu Cinema with 'Keratam'. This was the time where she even participated in beauty pageants. According to her, pageants are stepping stones to the acting profession. Next year, she debuted in Tamil Cinema with 'Thadaiyara Thaaka' and the film was received positively.

Breakthrough:

After completing her academics, she decided to plunge completely into movies. This was when she picked Merlapaka Gandhi's 'Venkatadri Express' (2013) opposite Sundeep Kishan and thus instantly grabbed eyeballs with her striking personality. Her performance was well-received and it earned her the first Filmfare nomination in the Best actress category. She also starred in the Tamil movie ‘Puthagam’ where she was paired opposite Arya’s brother, Sathya. In 2014, she debuted in Bollywood as one of the lead actresses in Divya Kumar's 'Yaariyan'. This year saw her career skyrocketing with the success of 'Loukyam', a Telugu rom-com where she starred opposite Gopichand. Her performance was loved by the audiences and it cemented her status in Tollywood. She received her second Filmfare nomination in the Best Actress category with this movie.

After the success of 'Loukyam', Rakul was flooded with offers which saw her pairing with many stars of South Indian cinema. ‘Yennamo Yedho’, the remake of ‘Ala Modalaindhi’ opposite to Gautam Karthik, ‘Rough’ opposite Aadi Sai Kumar and ‘Current Teega’ opposite Manchu Manoj were the other movies that were part of her kitty in the year 2014. In 2015, some of her notable films were 'Pandaga Chesko' where she paired with Ram for the first time. She was also seen in ‘Kick 2’ opposite Ravi Teja. In the same year, she worked for ‘Bruce Lee’, where she paired for the first time with Mega Powerstar Ram Charan Tej. Rakul slowly started to become a favourite to many and gained good momentum in her career. 

The year 2016 started with a bang for Rakul. She paired up with Young Tiger NTR Jr. for ‘Nannaku Prematho’ and she even dubbed for her role of Divyanka in the film. For this performance of hers, she even won a SIIMA Award in the Best Actress category. After this, she scored another hit with Allu Arjun where she starred with him in 'Sarrainodu'. Later that year, she paired for the second time with Ram Charan in the action thriller ‘Dhruva’, which was the remake of Tamil blockbuster 'Thani Oruvan.' Rakul almost dominated the entire year delivering some of the biggest Tollywood hits of 2016.

In 2017, Rakul opened the calendar with ‘Winner’ where she starred opposite to Supreme Hero Sai Dharam Tej. But, her role in her next film ‘Rarandoi Veduka Chuddam’ as the ever glowing Bramharamba opposite to Naga Chaitanya has been marked as the best role so far in her career. She was applauded by everyone alike for her role as the village belly. The third film in the year 2017 was ‘Jaya Janaki Nayaka’ where she paired opposite Bellamkonda Srinivas under the direction of Boyapati Srinu. After this, for the first time, Rakul paired with Superstar Mahesh Babu where they were seen together in the much-anticipated AR Murugadoss' bilingual spy thriller ‘SPYder’. She will also be seen alongside Karthi in the cop drama ‘Khakee’ (‘Theeran Adhigaram Ondru’ in Tamil) which is due for release in October 2017.

Rakul also signed a couple of Bollywood movies and they seem quite exciting. One being ‘Shimla Mirchi’ and the other being Neeraj Pandey's ‘Aiyaary’ where she stars opposite Sidharth Malhotra. Although she has signed Bollywood movies, Rakul made a clear statement that her priority will always be Telugu cinema and her heart is always there. However, as an actor, she wants to try and explore her boundaries.

Rakul Preet Singh is a beauty pageant and has already proved herself with walking the ramp and winning titles. As an actress after making it to the nominations in 2015, the year 2016 turned out to be a lucky one where she won her first award for Best Actress.

Year	Movie	Category	Award
2016	Nannaku Prematho	Best Actress	SIIMA Award

 

Rakul is not just a beauty pageant who made her way into the glam world. She is a beauty with brains and definitely has an entrepreneur in her. Being a fitness lover, she opened a franchise of the famous F45 gym in Gachibowli, Hyderabad along with her brother. Many of her celeb friends, Ram, Rana, Ravi Teja, Navdeep, Raashi Khanna, Mehreen, Regina, Lakshmi Manchu and Bellamkonda Srinivas graced the launch event. She also opened another branch of the same franchise, F45 in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh as well which was launched by Rana and Akhil.

Rakul completed her schooling at the Army Public School, New Delhi. After her schooling, she attended Jesus & Mary College, New Delhi to complete her rest of the education where she pursued Mathematics. Since her young age, Rakul Preet wanted to become an actress and set off to pursue her dream.

Before entering movies, as a model Rakul featured in an ad of Vicco WSO turmeric skin cream. Once she started her full time career in movies, she has been bagging more and more endorsement deals in parallel to movie offers. After her foray into Telugu cinema, she started off with the mobile store BIG C and later went on to sign the telecom biggie Airtel. She received immense response for her Airtel promos. She also signed one of Telugu states' biggest women’s apparel store RS Brothers, Shifa Hospitals and the biggest of all Vaibhav Jewellers which she signed for a whopping Rs. 1.5 Cr.

 

Rakul as a personality is dynamic and interesting. Here are some of her lesser known facts and trivia

• She participated in the Miss India pageant and won titles that included Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face, Femina Miss Talented, Femina Miss Beautiful Smile and Femina Miss Beautiful Eyes
• Rakul is a national level golf player
• Rakul has a blue belt in Karate
• Rakul's first film in Telugu was not 'Venkatadri Express.' In 2011 she featured opposite debutant Siddharth Rajkumar in film 'Keratam'
• She owns a home in Hyderabad where she lives along with her family
• Rakul is a great fan of badminton player Saina Nehwal
• Rakul was offered the role of Dhoni's first girlfriend (played by Disha Patani) in the biopic 'MS Dhoni: The Untold Story' but she couldn't take it up as she was busy with her Telugu projects
• She was also selected for Prabhas' hit movie 'Mr Perfect' and shot for 4 days, but unfortunately for reasons unknown, she was replaced with Taapsee Pannu
• She even rejected an offer from ace director Puri Jagannadh for one of his earlier movies as she did not know Puri and his image in the Telugu industry. Also Puri had asked for bulk dates of 70 days which was not possible with Rakul as she was trying to complete her academics

Rakul Preet Singh also has a softer and humane side to her. Whatever was in her reach, she was always one of the first to respond and provide a helping hand. 

• Rakul was the first one to feature on Manchu Lakshmi's charity show 'Memu Saitham' where she took up the job of a vegetable vendor and helped a family in KPHB, Hyderabad
• She also participated in the Telangana Govt.'s initiative 'Harithahaaram'
• Rakul also participated in another initiative by Manchu Lakshmi, 'Teach For Change' where she taught an English class to the students of 8th grade at The Government High School, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad
• In November, 2016, Rakul organized a fundraiser titled #FitnessUnplugged where she spoke about fitness and all the funds raised in this event were directed towards rape victims

 

Rakul Preet Singh has become one of the top most leading actresses in the Telugu Film Industry. And she always says that as an actor she would definitely want to venture into other industries to work more, but Telugu cinema will always remain as her home. Some of her close friends within the industry are celebrity designer Neeraja Kona, Samantha, Rana Daggubati, Lakshmi Manchu, Raashi Khanna and Regina Cassandra. She also said that director K Raghavendra Rao's son, Prakash Kovelamudi is a very good friend and mentor to her. Her outfits are designed by Neeraja Kona who also designs wardrobes for Samantha. She is also close with Akhil Akkineni whom she calls as her little brother.