Rakul Preet Singh has revealed that acting was never part of her original plan. The actress opened up on her journey and how she accidentally landed her first acting job while she was still college and only agreed to do it because she wanted to buy a car with the Rs 5 lakh she was being offered. Recalling how her journey began, Rakul told News18, “The Kannada film industry happened to me by chance. I was still in college and it was the third day after I had got my pictures done. Somebody saw them and their team reached out to my dad saying, ‘We’d like to cast her.’ I was studying mathematics at the time, so I didn’t know what to do. I was only in the first year, so I wasn’t sure about doing a film.”She admitted that the paycheck convinced her to say yes. “The only reason I did that film was because I was getting paid Rs 5 lakh and I thought I would be the first one in my friend group to have a car. I thought I would look so cool and that’s why I said yes to the film.”However, the experience changed her perspective. “We shot for 40 days for that film and that made me realise I love being in front of the camera. I decided to finish my graduation and then pursue acting. That’s why I had a gap and then I debuted in 2013.”She also reflected on navigating the industry in her early days without any strategy or guidance. “Those days, you didn’t have any tactic. I learnt everything on the go. There were so many big films I rejected because I didn’t want to miss my classes and be short on attendance,” she said.Rakul made her acting debut with the 2009 Kannada romantic drama Gilli, directed by Raghav Loki and co-starring Gururaj Jaggesh. After finishing her studies, the actress came back to films with Venkatadri Express in 2013). Her other popular films include Loukyam (2014), Nannaku Prematho (2016), Rarandoi Veduka Chudham (2017), Pandaga Chesko (2015), Sarrainodu (2016), Dhruva (2016), Spyder (2017), Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2017) and Ayalaan (2024).