Rajkummar Rao Thanks Fans After Winning Entertainment Leader Award

Rajkummar Rao's journey in Indian cinema is an epitome of resilience, passion, and dedication. The journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of India's finest and most celebrated actors can be termed as inspiring, just like the characters he plays. This year too, he touched another high with Stree 2, a horror-comedy that went on to make box-office records with Rs 505 crore in the world in just 10 days. He was also conferred with the award by the CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards 2024 as the Entertainment Leader of the Year for the difference he made towards content-driven storytelling.

He is now basking in the glory of the award and thanking his fans through Instagram by posting pleasant pictures from the award show, saying, "Such an honour to be awarded the Entertainment Leader of the Year at @cnbctv18india India Business Leader Awards. Forever grateful to the audiences, creators, and teams that make this journey possible.”

His journey to stardom wasn't easy. In a very frank conversation with Barkha Dutt, Rajkummar opened up about financial struggles he faced during his growing up years in Gurugram, with their family not being able to afford even the school fee at times.

Rao stated, “I was raised in a joint family in Gurgaon, and I was not raised with money. We didn’t have enough. But she never made us feel it," Rao said, referring to his mother. “There were times when school teachers paid our school fees because financially, it used to become very tough, for months. Money was an issue, but she never made us feel that there was a problem. She would arrange it somehow. For me to think that I would be a film actor one day was an impossible dream. But my mother really supported me."

Relocating to Mumbai in 2008 brought its own set of struggles for Rao, from managing on a limited budget to finding his way in an unfamiliar city without any connections. He described those years as some of the most difficult time of his life.

Further, he added, “When I came to Mumbai, in 2008, it was a very expensive city compared to where I come from. And there were days when there wasn’t enough money to eat. And I didn’t know anyone in the city. I came here with one showreel of mine that my editor friend from FTII made, and I thought that if I show it to everyone they’d give me work. But that didn’t happen. It took me two years to get my first film, LSD." 

Rao is more passionate about acting, but his biggest fear is not getting a good opportunity to act. “The only thing I’m scared of is losing work. I just want to work, every day of my life, till I die. I just want to be an actor. I’m not scared of not having enough money, because I’ve seen that. It cannot get worse than that. I’ve seen the lowest, so you cannot take me lower than that."