Rakul Preet Singh is fiddling with her ring and it drops off while she is mid-sentence. She picks it up promptly, puts it back on her finger and goes on to say, “I don’t wear accessories. These rings, my stylist gave them to me.” She lifts her carefully coiffured hair to reveal her ears. “I don’t even wear earrings,” she says and laughs. Given that she is in a business where dressing up to the nines is the norm, this statement sums up how candid the 29-year-old actor can be in front of the media. In the city to promote her newest release De De Pyaar De, which also stars Ajay Devgn and Tabu, Rakul comes across as a breath of fresh air. While she might pause and ponder to answer a question, none of them come across as rehearsed or diplomatic.
The film, about an older divorced man with children who falls in love with a much younger woman, has her cast as Ayesha, the girlfriend. “When Luv (Ranjan) sir (the producer) narrated the script, he said that a lot of girls have reservations if they are paired directly opposite an older star as their screen age goes up immediately. He said that I should take a day to think about it but I wanted to be on board immediately. It is so new-age and progressive, if I may call it so,” she says as she sits in a conference room in a Delhi hotel, the city which she called home for a good 11 years. Elaborating further on why she believes that the script is forward-looking, she says, “There are a lot of things happening in society but you do not talk about them. Despite that, these are normal. Relationships, where there are extreme age differences, are usually the subject of an art film. De De… deals with it in a humorous way and shows what happens in a family drama where the emotions are extremely strong. The man takes the girl to introduce her to his family and what happens next unfolds in the film.”
Her character is that of an independent girl who lives in London. “She has a job but works part-time as a bartender, which she loves,” says Rakul who took a week of bartending classes to get the body language and mannerisms right. “When I am serving, I shouldn’t be just holding the glass and making a drink. I needed to have the flair to flip the bottle and hold the glass in a certain way,” says the actor who graduated in Maths honours from Jesus and Mary College. But this was not the only thing that she had to do to prep for the role. She lost a lot of weight within a period of 45 days as she signed the film in November end and it had to go on the floor in January. And since there was a lot of dancing involved, classes for that, too, became essential for her to slip into the role.
She wants to stick with the lost weight and has no qualms in sharing that, “Since yesterday, the conversation has been chhole bhature kahan se khaenge when we are in Delhi? And I said, you guys can eat all you like but I am on a see-food diet,” she says gesturing towards her eyes. Since we are talking about a May-September pairing, I ask her that often when the tables are reversed where the woman is older, she tends to face flak and be trolled with sexist comments as happened recently when actor Priyanka Chopra got married to singer Nick Jonas. She says matter of factly, “People who want to talk will do so irrespective of whether there is an age difference or not,” and goes on to add in a voice that takes on an expression of shock, “Oh my god! That girl is dating that guy!” She points out that naturally these are the people, who would express even more displeasure if the couple happens to be a same sex one. “Our society likes to talk. But people at large accept the more non-conventional relationships. It should not matter as long as two people in a relationship are happy and they complement each other rather than perfectly fitting the age group and being terrible at honestly living together or cheating on each other. Just leave the couple alone,” she asserts and goes on to say, “The youth do not really care as they have more things to do than sit back and talk about relationships. A few years from now we won’t be having this conversation. Hopefully.”
Talking more about the film, did she find it intimidating to be paired with Ajay and sharing the same screen space with Tabu, who is known to be a powerhouse performer? She disagrees. “One does want to work with bigger stars. If in such a scenario, I come in and bring my nervous energy then I don’t deserve to be there. It was exciting. And it is a learning process, though that happens sub-consciously. I can’t say I learnt A, B and C on a particular day but when you work with people, who are so seasoned and know their job so well, you pick up a lot of things because acting is nothing but action and reaction. If the person opposite you is a great performer, you need to raise the bar,” she says. She also points out that working on the film was a riot. “Everytime we read a scene, we were like yeh karne mein maza aayega. Both Ajay and Tabu are spontaneous and so am I,” she says.
While, this is her third film in Hindi after Yaariyan (2014) and Aiyaary (2018), she has done a substantial number in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu over a period of four years. “It was not intentional that I did less Hindi films. It just happened that way. Yaariyan was my first film and three days after I finished shooting it, I started my first Telugu film, Venkatadri Express, which released two months before it. That became a success and I immediately signed three-four more films. In Hindi, I signed Shimla Mirchi, opposite Rajkummar Rao, directed by Ramesh Sippy, which was never released. The Telugu ones released faster and were hits,” she says. Moreover, she was supposed to essay the role which later went to Disha Patani in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, but fate had other plans. “Everything was signed at that time but the dates changed at the last minute. I was working with Mahesh Babu and Allu Arjun and I couldn’t move a date,” she says and is philosophical about the way things unfolded. “I am glad it is happening now, because during the time of Yaariyan, I was very young and naive. I would not have understood my work — the craft and how to deal with it publicly. I was an Army kid with no exposure to films and took everything at face value. If I came earlier, I wouldn’t have sustained because I call a spade a spade. I still can’t lie but at least now I know how to keep shut,” she says.
The rapid pace at which she has worked has resulted in 24 films across four languages that have been released and five more will hit the theatres during the course of the year. But she credits her background for not flagging. “I always had a very hectic life as a kid. My parents never left me free. Right from class 1, after school, I was attending classes like singing, dance, harmonium, riding, lawn tennis, swimming and more. But now I thank them when I see people around me getting tired. I have a timetable in my head. In 3rd or 4th grade, I asked my parents why I can’t go outside to play ghar ghar? They responded that I should play a sport. I was not allowed to waste time or watch TV. Multi-tasking was never a problem for me. I studied in college and was modeling full time alongside in Delhi. I can take flights from different cities and shoot day and night. I have done that,” she says.
Since she has worked in four different industries, are there points of convergence and separation? “They don’t have anything which make them different from each other. The lines are blurring. After Baahubali, people have realised that there is South Indian cinema even though remakes have been happening in the 70s and 80s. There were so many Anil Kapoor’s films which were remakes. I feel either you are working with a good team or a bad team and that happens irrespective of language. It is either a good script or a bad script. Otherwise there is not much of a difference,” she says.
But what about the barriers of language? Did she have a lot of problems while crossing those frontiers? She says, “It was not very difficult. Switching languages is just like switching characters and roles. Initially, I was scared when I started doing films in Telugu but now I speak it as fluently as Hindi or Punjabi. Even when I didn’t know it, I would cram the lines and understand the emotion behind them. On the whole, it becomes a good space when people from here are working there and from there are working here. It happened in the past too. Just that it is being noticed now as there is more reachability.”
Each actor signs on a project based on their understanding of what they are looking for in a film or a role. For Rakul, there is a permutation and combination that she works with. “Beggars are not really choosers as initially people do not know what you are capable of. A little luck also makes things fall into place. In Telugu, where I am 16 films old, I would want variation as I want to experiment more and not do regular stuff or perhaps at least not do the kind of roles that I’ve already done. In Hindi, on the other hand, I am fine with doing roles of smaller length which are impactful as people haven’t seen me. Sometimes it is the director. If Sanjay Leela Bhansali offered me a role, even if it was a small one, I would take it. Sometimes it is the actor whom you want to work with and the other times, it is the script that excites you. If there are five things to choose from, I will go with my gut feeling,” she says.
She feels that it is a great time to be in the industry as there is great content. “Films have progressed, content has changed and the audience has evolved, especially since the last two years. People are no longer rigid that I’ve been paired with a certain category of actors and I can only work with them. Earlier, you were either doing art or commercial films. Now everything has come together,” she says.
She does believe that a lot of the change has been powered by digital content. “It has influenced films. People did not have access to this kind of content earlier. There are other factors at play. Lives are very fast and everything is available on the phone. So unless it is a spectacle film or it is great content, where you can go and enjoy with your friends, you would not venture into the theatre. That is the reason why films like Stree, Andhadhun, Badhaai Ho! have done immense business. People want to watch great content, else they can see everything sitting on their couch. You can’t take the audience for granted and that has led to a lot of experimentation. And there is this influx of new directors,” she says and adds, “It is not about star power anymore.”
As an outsider, was it a problem, breaking through the industry? “I have not made it,” she laughs and goes on to add, “This is just the beginning. It is not easy but it is not something which I consider difficult. I believe in myself. Moreover, what is the joy of getting something easily? I am a little spiritual in my head and I feel lucky to have been able to pursue my passion. So, the journey itself has been beautiful.”
Having graduated in Maths, the immediate assumption is that she must have been a nerd. “I was never one but I was good with numbers in school. I knew I wanted to start modeling during college, which I did, so I took on a subject that I was good at,” she says as someone gestures to me to bring the interview to a close. Rakul responds, “Why? It is a very rare interaction that I have enjoyed.” But when it becomes apparent that the end cannot be staved off any further, she beams a wide and warm smile to bid goodbye. Clearly, never the one to shy away from being candid.
