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Rakul Preet Singh is an Indian film actress and model who predominantly works in Telugu film industry.  She has also appeared in a few Tamil, Hindi and Kannada films.

Rakul started a modelling career while in college, during which she also made her acting debut in the Kannada film Gilli (2009). In 2011, she participated in the Femina Miss India pageant in which she was placed fifth and won five pageant titles, including 'Miss India People’s Choice'.  She subsequently opted to become a full-time actress, making her Telugu debut in Keratam the same year and her Tamil debut in Thadaiyara Thaakka, the following year. In 2014 she also made her Bollywood debut in Yaariyan in which her performance was better received.

Singh was part of the commercially successful Telugu films like Venkatadri Express (2013), Current Theega (2014) and Loukyam (2014), leading her to land in bigger projects in the industry like Kick 2 (2015), Bruce Lee (2015), Nannaku Prematho (2016), Sarrainodu (2016) and Dhruva (2016).

Early life

Born in a Punjabi family in New Delhi, Rakul did her schooling from Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan and later studied Mathematics at Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi.  She has been an active golf player and played nationals.

Career

Debut and struggles (2009–14)

Rakul, 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.  In 2009 she made her acting debut in the Kannada film, Gilli, a remake of Selvaraghavan's 7G Rainbow Colony.  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 Miss India Poll, Rakul 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 debutant Siddharth Rajkumar in Keratam, though critics noted that she "got very little screen time".  The film was also made in Tamil simultaneously with the same cast but a different director as Yuvan, though the film is yet to release.  In 2012, she appeared in a supporting role in the Tamil film Thadaiyara Thaakka.  2013 she was seen in two films, Puthagam in Tamil and Venkatadri Express in Telugu, the latter becoming a commercial success and earning her a Best Actress nomination at the 61st Filmfare Awards South.

In 2014, Rakul debuted in a starring role in Bollywood with Divya Kumar's directorial debut Yaariyan, after which her third Tamil film Yennamo Yedho released. By mid-2014, she was working on four Telugu films simultaneously, which were directed by Sriwaas, G. Nageswara Reddy, Srinivas Reddy and Gopichand Malineni, respectively. Sriwaas' Loukyam and G. Nageswara Reddy's Current Theega were her next releases. She received positive reviews for her performances in both films, with 123telugu.com going on to claim that she was "slowly becoming a star actress".  Her next released film was Pandaga Chesko.

Public recognition and success (2015–present)

Rakul 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, Srinu Vaitla's Bruce Lee opposite Ram Charan, Sukumar's Nannaku Prematho opposite Jr. Ntr and Boyapati Srinu's Sarrainodu opposite Allu Arjun. She also has a Hindi film, Ramesh Sippy's Shimla Mirchi, coming up.

In January 2016 she signed a film under the direction of Boyapati Srinu opposite Bellamkonda Sreenivas for which she charged ?1.5 crore (US$220,000). In February 2016 she signed Surender Reddy's Dhruva starring opposite Ram Charan for the second time.

In early March 2016 she signed Gopichand Malineni's untitled film starring opposite Sai Dharam Tej for the first time.  In early July 2016, she signed AR Murugadoss bilingual film opposite Mahesh Babu, replacing Parineeti Chopra as the latter could not adjust her dates.  In August 2016, she signed Thupparivaalan which marks her comeback to Tamil cinema after two years.  In September 2016 she signed another Telugu film directed by Kalyan Krishna starring opposite Naga Chaitanya.  In Dec 2017, she has signed her next film titled Theeran Adhigaram Ondru to pair against Karthi.

Other work

On 20 February 2016 she started her own gym called F45 in Gachibowli, Hyderabad. She also bought a new apartment in Hyderabad of worth ?3 crore (US$450,000) to stay with her parents.