Rakul Preet Singh

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.[13] In 2009 she made her acting debut in the Kannada film, Gilli, a remake of Selvaraghavan's 7G Rainbow Colony.[14] 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".[14] 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.[15] 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.[16][17][18]

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".[19] The film was also made in Tamil simultaneously titled as "Yuvan" with the same cast but different director.[20] In 2012, she appeared in a supporting role in the Tamil film Thadaiyara Thaakka.[21]

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[22] and earning her first Best Actress nomination at the 61st Filmfare Awards South.

In 2014, she debuted in a starring role in Hindi with Divya Kumar's directorial debut Yaariyan,[23] after which her third Tamil film Yennamo Yedho released. By mid-2014, she was working on three Telugu films simultaneously,[24] which were directed by Sriwass,[25] G. Nageswara Reddy,[26] 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,[27][28] with 123Telugu claiming that she was "slowly becoming a star actress".[29] 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,[30] Srinu Vaitla's Bruce Lee opposite Ram Charan,[31] Sukumar's Nannaku Prematho opposite Jr. Ntr[32] and Boyapati Srinu's Sarrainodu opposite Allu Arjun.[33] 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[34] In February 2016 she signed Surender Reddy's Dhruva starring opposite Ram Charan for the second time.[35]

In early March 2016 she signed Gopichand Malineni's film Winner starring with Sai Dharam Tej for the first time.[36][37] In early July 2016, she signed to AR Murugadoss' bilingual film opposite to Mahesh Babu, titled Spyder.[38][39][40] In September 2016 she signed another Telugu film titled Rarandoi Veduka Chudham directed by Kalyan Krishna starring opposite Naga Chaitanya.[41] The movie was released on 26 May which was a huge blockbuster.[42]

In Dec 2016, she signed her next film titled Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru to pair opposite Karthi.[43] After a small sabbatical in Hindi films, she appeared in Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary starring opposite Sidharth Malhotra, released in February.[44]

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.[45] 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.[46] In the same year, she appeared in Milap Milan Zaveri's action drama Marjaavaan, alongside Ritesh Deshmukh, Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria.[47]

In 2021, Singh starred in the Chandra Sekhar Yeleti-directed film Check, alongside Nithiin and in Sardar Ka Grandson opposite Arjun Kapoor.[48][49][50] Her Telugu film Konda Polam directed by Krish alongside Panja Vaisshnav Tej was released on 8 October.[51] 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".[52]

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.[53] This was followed by the release of Runway 34 in which she starred alongside Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan.[54] Both the films where commercial failures.[55] She also featured in Indra Kumar's slice-of-life comedy Thank God alongside Devgn and Sidharth Malhotra, which was a box office failure.[56] Her next release was Anubhuti Kashyap's Doctor G in which she was paired opposite Ayushmann Khurrana. Doctor G received positive reviews from the critics and was average at the box office.[57] Rakul also paired up with Akshay Kumar in Cuttputtli which was released on Disney+ Hotstar.[58]

Her first release in 2023 was the social family entertainer film Chhatriwali directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar.[59] The film was released on Zee5. She received praise from the critics for her performance. The Hindu noted that Singh "shines" in her role.[60][61] This was followed by Boo and I Love You, both released on JioCinema.[62][63]

Singh has four 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.[64] She also has a Tamil-Telugu bilingual titled 31 October Ladies Night. She is also filming currently for Mudassar Aziz's Meri Patni Ka Remake, which also stars Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar.[65]