Rajkummar Rao | The most versatile actor in Bollywood

Rajkummar Rao is an Indian actor, very popularly seen in the Bollywood Industry. He is one of the exceptional actors in this era of Bollywood. Rajkummar has given many hit movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Bareilly ki Barfi and Ludo. 

Personal Life

Raj Kumar Yadav is also known as Rajkummar Rao was born on 31st August 1984. He was born in Prem Nagar which is in Gurgaon, Haryana. His father’s name is Satya Prakash Yadav. He worked as a government employee in Haryana Revenue Department. His mother, Kamlesh Yadav was a homemaker. He has 2 elder siblings and also 3 cousins.

Rajkummar did his schooling at S N Sidheshwar Senior Secondary Public School. He graduated from Sanatan Dharma College, Delhi. During his college days, he was also doing theatre simultaneously. He did theatre in Kshitij Theater Group and Shri Ram Center in Delhi. 

In 2008 he joined FTII, Pune and did a two-year acting course f. Later he moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in the Bollywood Industry. He added an extra ‘m’ in his name. He also changed his surname to Rao from Yadav. Rao had been dating Patralekha since 2010. They had also done a movie together known as ‘Citylights’. Recently in 2021, they married in Chandigarh. 

Bollywood Career

After graduating from FTII, he had multiple meetings with directors. He made his Bollywood Debut in Dibakar Banerjee’s movie ‘Love, Sex and Dhokha’. He auditioned after seeing a newspaper advertisement. Ekta Kapoor offered him a lead role in ‘Ragini MMS’. The film was reluctantly accepted and also became a box office success. He acted in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur 2’ which was his next success. His dedication to the film made him visit Wasseypur to get comfortable with the accent and language. He also acted in ‘Talaash’ which had a worldwide box office collection of 1.74 billion. 

His next movie was Abhishek Kapoor’s ‘Kai Po Che!’. It was based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’. The film also starred Sushant Singh Rajput and Amit Sadh. The film also received a lot of critical appreciation. Next, he acted in Hansal Mehta’s biographical drama ‘Shahid’ for this film he met Shahid Azmi in person. Rao visited courtroom trials and also read the Quran. He also acted in films like ‘Queen’, ‘Aligarh, and ‘Trapped’. He also acted in ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ where he played the role of an abusive husband.

Way Towards Success

Rajkummar got a lot of appreciation and offered back to back work. But after his romantic-comedy film, Bareilly Ki Barfi got praised for their performance. His film ‘Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana’ received a mixed response from critics. He also made his digital debut in ALTBalagi’s biographical series ‘Bose: Dead/Alive‘. His film ‘Ek Ladki ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’ got a very positive response. Because of portraying homosexuality very well. His films ‘Judgemental hai Kya’ and ‘Made in China’ got appreciated by the audience. He finally got accepted as a commercial star. In 2021 he started shooting for the film ‘Badhai Do’. It was a spiritual sequence of the film ‘Badhai Do’. His recent release was ‘Hum Do Humare Do’, released on Hostar in 2021.

Achievements and Awards

Rajkummar has won 19 awards and 29 nominations. He has received 3 Filmfare awards. He also won the Asia Pacific screen awards. CNN-IBN Indian of the Year. GQ Men of the Year Awards. International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Indian Film Festival of Melbourne for the film Trapped. He also won a National Award for Shahid. He was also featured in Forbes India 30 under 30 in 2014. In 2017 he appeared on Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 List.

Also Read: Kriti Sanon | Success story of Bollywood’s diva