Debut and early roles (2009–2014) Singh, who said that she had always dreamt of being an actress, began her career in modelling at age 18 while she was still in college. In 2009 she made her acting debut in the Kannada film,
Gilli, a remake of
Selvaraghavan's
7G Rainbow Colony. She stated that she signed up the film "with the aim to earn a little extra pocket money" and that she was unaware "how big south Indian films were". Apart from the People's Choice Miss Indiatimes, she won four subtitles at the pageant including Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face, Femina Miss Talented, Femina Miss Beautiful Smile and Femina Miss Beautiful Eyes. She returned to films in 2011, featuring opposite Siddharth Rajkumar in
Keratam which was released both in
Telugu and
Tamil languages, though critics noted that "she got very little screen time". The film was also made in Tamil simultaneously titled as "Yuvan" with the same cast but different director. In 2012, she appeared in a supporting role in the Tamil film
Thadaiyara Thaakka. In January 2013 she appeared in a
Tamil film titled
Puthagam. In November 2013 she was seen in
Venkatadri Express in
Telugu, the latter becoming a commercial success and earning her first
Best Actress nomination at the
61st Filmfare Awards South. In 2014, she debuted in a starring role in
Hindi with Divya Kumar's directorial debut
Yaariyan, after which her third Tamil film
Yennamo Yedho released. By mid-2014, she was working on three Telugu films simultaneously, which were directed by
Sriwass,
G. Nageswara Reddy, and
Gopichand Malineni.
Sriwass's
Loukyam and
G. Nageswara Reddy's
Current Theega were her next releases. She received positive reviews for her performances in both films. She received her second Best Actress nomination at
62nd Filmfare Awards South. Her next released film was
Pandaga Chesko in which she was starred opposite
Ram Pothineni and directed by
Gopichand Malineni.
Breakthrough and success in Telugu films (2015–2018) Singh was then selected as the female lead in half-a-dozen, four of which are high-profile Telugu films:
Surender Reddy's
Kick 2 opposite
Ravi Teja,
Srinu Vaitla's
Bruce Lee opposite
Ram Charan,
Sukumar's
Nannaku Prematho opposite
Jr. Ntr and
Boyapati Srinu's
Sarrainodu opposite
Allu Arjun. She earned her first
Best Actress (Telugu) award at
6th South Indian International Movie Awards. In January 2016 she signed the film
Jaya Janaki Nayaka under the direction of
Boyapati Srinu opposite
Bellamkonda Sreenivas In February 2016 she signed
Surender Reddy's
Dhruva starring opposite
Ram Charan for the second time. In early March 2016 she signed
Gopichand Malineni's film
Winner starring with
Sai Dharam Tej for the first time. In early July 2016, she signed to
AR Murugadoss' bilingual film opposite to
Mahesh Babu, titled
Spyder. In September 2016 she signed another Telugu film titled
Rarandoi Veduka Chudham directed by Kalyan Krishna starring opposite
Naga Chaitanya. The movie was released on 26 May which was a box office success. Hemanth Kumar CR from
Firstpost noted, "Rakul plays an author-backed role and does a fine job, but somewhere you can’t help but wonder if she really needed so many lines, especially in the film’s first half." In December 2016, she signed her next film titled
Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru to pair opposite
Karthi. After a small sabbatical in Hindi films, she appeared in
Neeraj Pandey's
Aiyaary starring opposite
Sidharth Malhotra, released in February.
Career fluctuations (2019–present) '' promotions in 2019 In 2019, she took on a guest role in
Nandamuri Balakrishna's
NTR: Kathanayakudu as
Sridevi. She then went on to play the female lead in
Dev opposite
Karthi for the second time. Singh appeared with
Ajay Devgn and
Tabu in
Luv Ranjan's Bollywood romcom,
De De Pyaar De, released on 17 May 2019. The same month, she appeared in
Selvaraghavan's
NGK opposite
Suriya. Her fifth release of 2019 was a Telugu
romantic comedy film
Manmadhudu 2, produced by
Nagarjuna Akkineni and directed by
Rahul Ravindran. In the same year, she appeared in
Milap Milan Zaveri's
action drama Marjaavaan, alongside
Ritesh Deshmukh,
Sidharth Malhotra and
Tara Sutaria. In 2021, Singh starred in the
Chandra Sekhar Yeleti-directed film
Check, alongside
Nithiin and in
Sardar Ka Grandson opposite
Arjun Kapoor. Her Telugu film
Konda Polam directed by
Krish alongside
Panja Vaisshnav Tej was released on 8 October. In her review about the film, Neeshita Nyayapati of
The Times of India wrote about Singh that "Rakul is a delight as Obu and the dubbing for her character seems almost pitch-perfect, fitting right into the skin of the character. She's a ray of sunshine in an otherwise muted film". Her first release in 2022 came with the action film
Attack, co-starring
John Abraham and
Jacqueline Fernandez, a Lakshya Raj Anand's directorial debut. It received mixed reviews. This was followed by the release of
Runway 34 in which she starred alongside
Ajay Devgn and
Amitabh Bachchan. Both the films where commercial failures. She also featured in
Indra Kumar's
slice-of-life comedy
Thank God alongside
Devgn and
Sidharth Malhotra, which was a box office failure. Her next release was
Anubhuti Kashyap's
Doctor G in which she was paired opposite
Ayushmann Khurrana.
Doctor G received positive reviews from the critics and was average at the box office. Rakul also paired up with
Akshay Kumar in
Cuttputtli which was released on
Disney+ Hotstar. Her first release in 2023 was the social family entertainer film
Chhatriwali directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar. The film was released on
Zee5. She received praise from the critics for her performance.
The Hindu noted that Singh "shines" in her role. This was followed by
Boo and
I Love You, both released on
JioCinema. Singh had two Tamil film releases in 2024 with
S. Shankar's
vigilante-action film
Indian 2 opposite
Siddharth, and
science fiction film
Ayalaan opposite
Sivakarthikeyan. Both films emerged among the year's highest grossing Tamil films, though the former bombed at the box office. In her first film release of 2025, Singh played a physiotherapist, dealing with her fiancé ex-wife in
Mudassar Aziz's
Mere Husband Ki Biwi, alongside Arjun Kapoor and
Bhumi Pednekar. Anuj Kumar of
The Hindu found her performance to be similar to her free-spirited character in
De De Pyaar De. She also reprised her role as Ayesha Khurana in the sequel film,
De De Pyaar De 2. == Personal life ==