As Rajkummar Rao celebrates his 38th birthday, let's have a look at his striking performances in films from Trapped to Newton.
Rajkummar Rao, one of the finest actors in Hindi cinema, turns 38 on Tuesday, August 31. In his career spanning more than a decade, the actor has given some excellent performances on the big screen. On his special day today, let's have a look at six of the most powerful performances of Rajkummar Rao. (All images: Twitter)
1. Shahid
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Starting the list with the National Award-winning performance in Hansal Mehta's terrific 2012 film Shahid, Rajkummar Rao portrayed the titular character of lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was shot down since he defended people falsely accused of terrorism.
2. Trapped
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Rajkummar Rao headlined Vikramaditya Motwane's survival drama Trapped and gave the finest performance, among the male and female acts, in Hindi cinema in 2017. The actor had only coffee and carrots for 20 days to look perfect for the part.
3. Newton
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In Amit Masurkar's 2017 dark comedy-drama Newton, Rajkummar Rao portrayed the titular character of Newton Kumar, a government clerk on election duty in the Naxalite area. It was India's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
4. Stree
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In the 2018 horror-comedy film Stree helmed by Amar Kaushik in his directorial debut, Rajkummar Rao showed his humorous side as Vicky. Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Shraddha Kapoor, and Abhishek Banerjee also gave strong performances.
5. Bareilly Ki Barfi
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Rajkummar Rao as 'badass babua' Pritam Vidrohi stole the limelight from the main leads Chirag and Bitti, played respectively by Ayushmann Khurrana and Kriti Sanon in the 2017 romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari.
6. Badhaai Do
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In the 2022 comedy-drama Badhaai Do, Rajkummar Rao played a homosexual police officer and gave a restrained performance in the Harshavardhan Kulkarni directorial. Also starring Bhumi Pednekar, it still remains one of the underrated films of the year.
