Rakul Preet Singh talks about being a happy person and shares her thoughts on unrealistic standards of beauty set by the industry
Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 17, 2019)

The actor is on a roll with her latest release, Marjaavaan, and has, delivered a hit with De De Pyaar De, earlier this year. But for Rakul Preet Singh, success cannot be fathomed by the box office performances of her films. She believes in celebrating life every day. She elaborates, “I’m a spiritual person. I don’t look at the superficial definitions of success. My friends joke and tell me that I’m the 2.0 version of Satguru. I’m very happy doing what I do. Success, to me, means happiness, contentment and being comfortable about who I am. I don’t celebrate the success of a film and I’m not affected by failure. I’m just thankful that I’m getting to live my dream. There are lakhs of people who want to live this life. If people aren’t talking negative things about me behind my back, that’s real success.”

Ask her what kept her away from Hindi films and she says with a laugh, “I didn’t know I had to live in Mumbai to get work here.” She further adds, “I’m happy with my journey. I came with nothing. Everything has been an upward graph since then. But I’m constantly striving to do better.”

The Yaariyan (2014) actor reveals that she comes from a non-film background and owes her knowledge about films to the ’90s. Talking about her love for the era, she explains, “Back then, there used to be heroines and not actors. We aspired to be like them. Their beauty was unattainable and stardom, unachievable. They were quintessential divas. I haven’t watched too many films in the ’70s and the ’80s because I was in high school and my father was an army man. We used to live in border areas and didn’t have cable connections. I gained my knowledge about cinema from the ’90s.”

Rakul doesn’t subscribe to the unrealistic standards of beauty set by the film industry. “I look like a mess after my yoga sessions. I always wonder how people have perfectly curled hair post their workouts. It’s a lot of added pressure but it’s about how you take it. I’m thankful that my gym doesn’t allow paparazzi. Because of social media, we can influence a lot of people and they feel that actors always look good. It’s wrong to give them that impression. There’s a team that makes us look a certain way. It’s okay to not always look your best. You’ve got to embrace your true self,” she concludes.