In the past three years, Rakul Preet has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry – NTR, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu among others. It’s no wonder then, that she’s one of the most sought after actresses in the industry today, and she juggles between so many films that it makes you wonder if she ever keeps track of her work. But Rakul has a different way of looking at things. “My only focus is on delivering my best on any given day and moving on to the next. I have never looked back at my life or career to think about what I could have done differently. Success is not in our hands, so why bother about the result?” she says.
Her latest film Winner has her playing an athlete and having built a reputation for being a fitness and sports enthusiast over the years, it was a piece of cake for her. “I did quite a bit of running in the film (laughs). It was easy for me. When you are completely into fitness, it makes your body quite strong and flexible. I could relate to that aspect of my role,” she adds.
In the past, Rakul had collaborated with director Gopichand Malineni for Pandaga Chesko and cinematographer Chota K Naidu for her Venkatadri Express.
“Chota sir kept teasing me saying, ‘Chaala develop aipoyaav’ (You’ve developed a lot as an actress). Having known me right from my first film, he treats me like his own daughter. For that matter, every film team that I work with is like my family and Winner’s crew was no different,” she adds.
Although she hasn’t worked with her co-star Sai Dharam Tej in the past, the duo have been friends for a long time now and there’s a streak of madness in both of them which, she says, makes every day special.
“It’s so much fun when two people with the same wavelength work together. Tej and I are like two kids in a candy store. There’s no end to our madness. We even have nicknames for each other - I call him Dhalam and he calls me Lakul. I remember when we were shooting in Ukraine, every evening, after the shoot, we would go out to explore the local restaurants. We discovered this amazing restaurant, which we kept revisiting, and they served some of the best dishes I’ve ever tasted. I can never forget the quail I tasted there. We were so high on food that we even lost our way in the streets of Lviv (Ukraine),” Rakul confesses.
Earlier this month, she was in Bangkok shooting for her forthcoming film in Boyapati Sreenu’s direction and her diary is chic-a-bloc with a string of amazing places that she has visited over the past few months. Ask her if she has a favourite place that she would love to revisit, Rakul says, “Goa! That’s one place where I can live for the rest of my life. I would love to build my retirement home there (laughs).”