Rakul Preet Singh: I was naive when I started off as an actor, that helped me a lot with confidence
Actor Rakul Preet Singh, posing exclusively for HT City Showstoppers, gets talking about how her fashion sense has evolved in each stage of her life so far.
Rakul Preet Singh’s journey in films started off as a way to make ‘good pocket money’. From that, to today juggling Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films, it’s been a hell of a ride.

But she chooses to not call whatever she faced till here as a ‘challenge’, “I don’t like the word ‘challenge’, everyone has that. A daily worker works to make ends meet, a doctor’s challenge is to make the surgery successful. Whenever you decide to take the road less travelled, you are obviously going to have challenges. You want to take those up, if that is what gives you an adrenaline kick.”
Singh, born in Delhi, had no connections with showbiz. “I was sure about it when I began my career, that I will give an audition and crack it. I was naive, and that gives you confidence when you know very little. That worked in my favour. I couldn’t question my talent because I didn’t know any better!,” quips the 33-year-old, as she shoots exclusively for HT City Showstoppers.

Talking to us as she works on De De Pyaar De 2 currently, Singh’s first film comes to mind. It was a 2009 Kannada film called Gilli. “That was like a hobby film, my journey started properly in 2013. I am not someone who looks back, there’s so much more to do. Whether it is working in the south cinema with the biggest of stars, mostly all of them, and then Hindi today, I feel like there is still much to do,” she says.
Instead of her harbouring an acting ambition, it was rather the other way round. Singh tells us she began modelling at the age of 18, “Then in a month of my pictures being circulated, I got an offer for Gilli. I did it for the extra pocket money, I knew nothing. I realised I would make money in lakhs, whereas my pocket money was ₹2000. I had never seen a film camera before that in my life.”

The experience sowed the seed of acting in her mind, but she wanted to finish her studies first. “I finished college, went to the Miss India pageant and my Hindi film Yaariyaan happened. I then finished shooting for my first Telugu film, which released before Yaariyaan,” she shares.
Singh’s role range varies from playing the simple, conventional filmi heroine in films, to experimenting with films such as Chhatriwali (which spoke about safe sex), Doctor G (about a male doctor becoming a gynaecologist), among others.

But the actor confesses she has had to overcome being boxed. “That happens all the time,” she says, “Human beings have that herd mentality, it’s not just in our profession. That happened with me. I was doing all girl-next-door roles in Telugu till De De Pyaar De. With that film, I made the switch to a hot and happening character. Makers thought ‘oh she can be hot also’. Makers of Doctor G for example were a little unsure first. I don’t know who did, but there was a collective discussion after the film’s narration ‘will she be able to look like a small town doctor?’ An actor’s job is to look different, that’s why we are acting. If I have to play myself, where’s the fun of it?”
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: SHARA ASHRAF PRAYAG
PHOTOGRAPHER: VIDHI GODHA
STYLIST: ANSHIKA VERMA
HAIR: SALIM SAYED
MAKEUP: ALIYA SHAIK
PRODUCTION: SHWETA SUNNY, ZAHERA KAYANAT AND VITTI JOSHI
LOCATION: FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, MUMBAI
