Get to know Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao, who went from college goon to acclaimed star

Rajkummar Rao is here to stay, successfully managing the perfect mix between commercial and parallel film. The one Bollywood hero-style thing Rao has probably done is his name change. Overnight, Rajkumar Yadav became Rajkummar Rao. Rao claims that his mother is responsible for this change, and the change was because of numerology. Rao believes that his achievement is unrelated to his name change and gives credit to his age-old approach of honesty, backed up by hard work.

Rajkummar Rao's talent was immediately apparent when the public first saw him in Dibakar Banerjee's 'Love Sex Aur Dhokha'. Characters and cameras were used to connect three stories, documenting their tensions and mayhem and creating a unique cinematic experience. It was a successful debut!

'Newton', was India's official Oscar entry. The character Newton was an idealist, but Rajkummar was able to empathize with his ideas and ideology. It was planned to be a low-budget film, yet it did extremely well at the box office. He portrayed Newton Kumar, an upright government clerk dispatched to a Naxal-infested district in Chhattisgarh for electoral duties.

Rajkummar Rao and Hansal Mehta are known for their hit collaborations as actor and director. The duo's film ‘Shahid’, based on real and brutal incidents, released in 2013. The film was based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi. His powerful performance drew him into the spotlight of fame.

Yet another take on a true story, the duo came together again for ‘Omertà’, again a bone-chilling subject. In this second movie, Rao portrayed terrorist Ahmed Omar Sheikh, who was responsible for the kidnapping of western tourists and the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Rao has to take on physical similarities, and portray psychological traits when playing the role of such a well-known villainous personality.

Rajkummar Rao's rise to the top has been steady, and now he is counted among Bollywood's most distinctive and trusted actors. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's 'Bareilly Ki Barfi', demonstrated his versatility as an actor. The film thrust him into the realm of commercial entertainment in a way that no previous film had done before.

Rajkummar Rao has already been a fan of the stage. After graduating from Delhi University, he went on to enroll at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, where he met his now girlfriend Patralekhaa. They're one of B-most town's open and long-standing couples. In interviews and on social media, the couple never fails to declare their love for one another.

Did you know that the actor was beaten up by 25 college boys and begged them not to punch him in the face because he wanted to be an actor? When he was in the eleventh grade, he admitted to courting a girl who already had a boyfriend. As a result, the actor said that he was beaten up by 25 individuals. When he appeared on an episode of ‘EIC vs Bollywood’, Rao admitted that he was a goon in his youth. He left that phase of his life behind when he reached grade 11 and decided that he wanted to be an actor.

After the mega-success of Stree, Rajkummar Rao will again feature in a comedy horror film, 'Roohi' with Janhvi Kapoor. Rao will play the lead role in the franchise movie of Badhai Ho. Rajkumar Rao's movie is called Bhadhai Do with Bhumi Pednekar. In Swagat Hain, Rao, has collaborated with Hansal Mehta yet again.