All about Rajkumar Rao

Rajkummar Rao Yadav is an Indian actor who mostly known for his works in Hindi films industry. This versatile actor made his film début in2010 with Dibakar Banerjee's experimental film Love Sex aur Dhokha. But achieved success in 2013 with the film Kai Po Che! For this film he also nominated for the Filmfare Award for the best Supporting Actor.

After that he never looked back. He went to cast several commercially successful movies. Through his film career, Rao became one of the most promising new actor in India. His raw acting talent and natural charisma won the hearts of film community, critics, and the public.

For his brilliant participation in Hindi film industry till now he received seven Awards, including a National Film Awards, three Filmfare awards and an Asia-Pacific Screen Awards. 

Early life and Education

Rajkummar was born in 31 August 1984 in Prem Nagar, Gurgaon, Haryana, India. His Zodiac sign is Virgo.

He was born as Raj Kumar Yadav. But her mother suggested him to change his name because his had a strong believe in numerology. After that he changed the name as ‘Rajkummar Rao’ from ‘Yadav’ and added an extra ‘m’ on his middle name in 2014.    

Rao grew up in a middle-class movie enthusiastic joint family in Pram Nagar, Gurugram. His late father Satya Prakash Yadav was a government employee and his mother late Kamlesh Yadav was a homemaker. Rao has two older siblings brother Amit and sister Monika.

He finished his schooling from Blue Bells Model School, Gurgaon and graduated in Arts from Delhi University. Since his school life he has been participated in school plays and college dramas. Also, he was very fascinated about Bollywood of that time and so much influenced by Shah Rukh Khan, Manoj Bajpayee and Amir Khan.

So, beside his college studies he was simultaneously doing theater with Kshitij Repertory and the Shri Ram Centre in New Delhi. Where he was also working for one year. During this working pride his senior Mukesh Chhabra was very impressed with his acting talent and later he cast Rao in his two breakthrough films ‘Kai Po Che!’ in 2010 and ‘Shahid’ in 2013.

In 2008, he joined in a two year acting course at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune and after completed the course he moved to Mumbai for pursuing his acting career in 2008. During his struggling period in industry he used to get several small roles in Ads. He got his big movie brake in Dibakar Banerjee's experimental film Love Sex aur Dhokha in 2010.  

Rao has been committed with actress Patralekha Paul since 2010. He first met her at FTII. But fell in love during the making of a short film. They also shared on-screen with the film of ‘CityLights’ in 2014 which is the debut film of Pathralekha.     

Lifestyle and Hobbies

Rao is a Vegetarian. He also won an award as PETA’s Hottest Vegetarian Celebrity in 2017.

Beside that he loves Italian and Indian Cuisine’s. his favorite beverage is Tea.

His hobbies are reading, travelling and dancing. He was passionate about dancing since childhood and wanted to be a dancer. When Rao was just 16 years old he auditioned for a dance reality show in Mumbai.

He also formally trained in Taekwondo. From his 5^th standard he took training in martial arts and was a national level gold medalist in Taekwondo.  

He is an avid dog lover.

Acting Career        

After graduating from FTII in 2008, Rao move to Mumbai and there he spend next year and giving several auditions for one and a half years. In 2010, he got his big break from Dibakar Banerjee's experimental film Love Sex aur Dhokha in 2010. At that time Dibakar looking for a newcomers and published ads for that. After seen that ads Rao met Dibakar and selected for this new film. In this film he got just 16,000 rupees.

He played the role of Adarsh a supermarket supervisor who cons an employee into sleeping with him so he can record the act on a hidden camera and sell it. For this role Rao lose 6 kilograms in a month. After release got commercial success as well as Rao’s appearance praised by film critics and audiences.

But it was not a first appearance of Rao in Bollywood. He first featured as a ‘News Reader’ Ram Gopal Varma's 2010 political thriller Rann, starring with Amitabh Bachchan and Paresh Rawal. For this short role he got around 3000 rupees.

After the success of LSD, Rao featured with Ekta Kapoor horror film Ragini MMS in 2011. In this film Rao’s performance didn’t get much appreciations but the film gets commercial success in Box-Office.

Next year, He was casting Bejoy Nambiar's crime thriller Shaitan which he played a role of a police officer. For this role Rao got huge appreciation from Bollywood films critics and audiences.

In 2012, director Anurag Kashyap cast him his crime thriller series film Gangs of Wasseypur-part 2. In the film he played the supporting role of Shamshad Alam for which Rao visited Wasseypur to learn perfect accent and local character. This film also critically and commercially successful.

Rao’s another released of this year was Chittagong which basically based on the Chittagong armoury raid and his role was that of independent activist Lokenath Bal. His final released of this year was ‘Talaash: The Answer Lies Within’ which was a Reema Kagti’s suspense thriller. There he played the role of a cop, starring with Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kareena Kapoor.

In an interview, Rao said that he did the film because, just shared the screen space with one of his inspiration, Aamir Khan. This film emerged as the year's eighth highest-grossing Hindi film with over 1.74 billion rupees’ worldwide earnings.                                                

Rajeev Masand commented that in just one scene Rao shows "what a good actor can bring even to a small part".

In 2013, Rao featured with Abhishek Kapoor’s film Kai Po Che! Starring with Sushant Singh Rajput and Amit Sadh. Basically the film’s plot based on Chetan Bhagat’s 2008 novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life. After releasing the film 22 February 2013, he got huge response form audiences with acclaim from film critics. For this role Rao was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The same year, he appeared in the biographical film Shahid directed by Hansal Mehta. Where he plays the role of late lawyer Shahid azmi. During the final preparation for the role, Rao met with Azmi’s family and spend times with them and know about Azmi’s personality. After released the film everyone praised his performance which indeed a most challenging part of the film.

Anupama Chopra called the film Rao's "triumph"; "His Shahid has strength, anguish and a controlled anger, but also real charm."

This film got super success on Box-office collection. Rao received several Awards for his performance. including National Film Award for Best Actor at the 61^st National Film Awards and the Filmfare Critics’ Awards for Best Actor at the 59^th Filmfare Awards.

At the same year Rao featured with a comedy film Queen where he played the role of a manipulative fiancé. This film was first world premiered in the Busan International Film Festival. The film was critically and commercially successful with 970 million rupees worldwide earning.

In the same year he first featured in a short film named Bombay Mirror directed by Shlok Sharma along with Vijay Maurya.

In 2014, he was acted in Mehta’s film CityLights opposite his real life girlfriend Patralekha Paul. During this role’s preparation he lived in a small town Sadri in the Pali district of Rajasthan for a month and follow local people’s life style and dialect. After released his performance praised by audiences and critics.   

Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times writing that he slips "effortlessly" into the role.

In 2015, Rao featured in as a supporting role in Dolly Ki Doli, starring with Sonam K Ahuja, Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma.

At the same year, his next release was romantic film Hamari Adhuri Kahani directed by Mohit Suri where Rao played an abusive husband to Vasudha Prasad.

After he cast biographical film Alighar. This film’s mainly based on the life of Professor Ramchandra Siras where Rao plays as a journalist who try to dig up the story. For this performance in the movie Rao have got huge critical acclaim and nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.   

Sukanya Verma called Rao "pitch-perfect" in his role of "inquisitive journalist.

Rao’s next collaboration with Vikramditya Motwane’s Trapped which was released in 2016. This film story based on a man who trapped in this apartment without food, even water and electricity for several days. For this role Rao had to loss wright and maintain a crash diet with a carrot and coffee. Despite a vegetarian, Rao ate meat in some of scenes. Trapped first premiered at the 2016 Mumbai Film Festival and released theatrically on 17^th March 2017. Rao won Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for this film.  

Subhash K. Jha wrote that Rao "immerses himself in the judiciously assembled plot with such radiant authenticity that after a while we cease to watch the skill that underlines the outstanding performance".    

In 2017 Rao’s first release was Behen Hogi Teri opposite Shruti Haasan. This film can’t do well as expected. His next project was romantic comedy film Bareilly Ki Barfi directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, starring with Ayushmann Kurrana. For this film Rao got positive review from critics and it was commercially successful. Rao won a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor of the film.

Namrata Joshi wrote, "Rao is a hoot and brings the house down with his chameleon turn and comic timing – simpering simpleton one minute, full of swagger the next; a role that could have become a caricature in the hands of a lesser actor."

His next released was black comedy film Newton directed by Amit V. Masurkar, where he played the role of a government clerk who selected for election duty to a Naxal-controlled town. This film premiered at the 67 Berlin International Film Festival and released in India on 22 September 2017. Rao’s performance got huge appreciation and critic’s acclaims. For this film Rao won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Actor and a nomination for Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.

Rajeev Masand commented, "It's hard to separate the actor from the character, and not many of our artistes can claim to possess that gift.”

His next appeared in Raabta directed by Dinesh Vijan. For his role of Mohak he went through a tiresome make-up process for five to six hours every day to look like a 324 years old man.

His final released of the year was Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana with Kriti Kharbanda which got positive response from critics.

At the same time, he debuts in Digital medis with ALTBalaji’s Historical biography web series Bose: Dead/Alive. Its plot based on 2012 book India’s Biggest Cover up by Anuj Dhar.