Raj Singh Chaudhary is an Indian model, actor, writer, and director. He was an entrepreneur before he became an actor and later a director. He is known for his role in Anurag Kashyap‘s film Gulaab and directing the movie Thar starring Anil Kapoor.
Wiki/Biography
Raj Singh Chaudhary was born in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. As per one source, he was born on 13 July 1975 (age 48 years; as of 2022), and as per another source, he was born on 23 July 1975 (age 48 years; as of 2022). He attended Goethals Memorial School, Kurseong, Darjeeling and later studied at Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, New Delhi. He graduated in 1995 with a degree in Software Engineering from B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bengaluru, Karnataka. He decided to go to the U.S. to pursue MBA and got admission as well; however, he did not go abroad to study.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 6′ 0″
Weight (approx.): 85 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
He was born into a Rajasthani family.
Parents & Siblings
His father’s name was Mangal Singh Chaudhary who owned a tea estate in Darjeeling, West Bengal. He has two sisters named Rita and Nita.
Raj Singh Chaudhary’s father, Mangal Singh Chaudhary, and his mother
Raj Singh Chaudhary with his sister, Rita Singh
Raj Singh Chaudhary’s father, Mangal Singh Chaudhary with Raj’s sister, Nita
A photo of Raj Singh Chaudhary’s grandparents
Wife & Children
He is unmarried.
Relationships/Affairs
He is single.
Career
Model
He started modelling during his college days on the advice of a few of his friends. He was a tennis player, hence he was fit and tall as well. He modelled in various college-level modelling contests and went on to model in a few small ads. He emerged as the runner-up in the Gladrags Manhunt competition.
Raj Singh Chaudhary (left) during his early modelling days
Entrepreneur
He started a software company with two of his friends who cheated him, and he returned back to Kolkata where his parents stayed. He decided to start a new software firm when he met the producer-director, Tapan Saha who saw him in an ad and offered him a role in his film.
Actor
He went to Mumbai to attend a workshop for the film Jugalbandi which was later shelved; however, he decided to try his hand at acting. After struggling for a few months to find any role, he bagged the role of Ajay Sehgal in the Hindi film Kuch Naa Kaho starring Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Arbaaz Khan and directed by Rohan Sippy in 2003. In 2004, he acted as Mushtaq Tarani in the film Black Friday, based on the 1993 bomb blasts, directed by Anurag Kashyap and had Kay Kay Menon and Pavan Malhotra in lead roles. In 2009, he played the main role in the film Gulaal starring Abhimanyu Singh, Piyush Mishra, and Mahi Gill and directed by Anurag Kashyap.
Raj Singh Chaudhary on the poster of Gulaal film
He was roped in for the movie Karmaya featuring Abhay Deol and Irrfan Khan which was later shelved. In 2010, he played the role of Joseph “Tiger” Rodriguez in the film Ek Anhonee and the role of Karan in the film The Waiting Room starring Radhika Apte and Sandeep Kulkarni. In the same year, he starred in the lead role of Raghuveer in the film Antardwand starring Swati Sen and Vinay Pathak which is based on the forced marriage (Pakadua marriage) done in some parts of Bihar. In 2018, he acted as Jeet in the short film Plus Minus starring Bhuvan Bam and Divya Dutta.
Writer & Director
He started writing after he saw the film Satya starring Manoj Bajpajyee. He was impressed by the story of the film and wrote the story based on which Anurag Kashyap made Gulaal. He wrote another short story on which the film No Smoking was based, featuring John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, and Paresh Rawal. In 2019, he directed the short film The Last Chapter which was praised by critics. In 2021, he directed the film Shaadisthan starring Kirti Kulhari, Nina Borah, and Nivedita Bhattacharya which was based on women empowerment and was released on Disney+, Hotstar VIP, and Disney+ Hotstar Premium. In 2022, he directed the film Thar starring Anil Kapoor, Harshvardhan Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, and Fatima Sana Shaikh. It was directed in different parts of Rajasthan and was released on Netflix.
Raj Singh Chaudhary (right) with Anil Kapoor during the shoot of Thar
Controversy
Payment Issues
In 2012, he was caught in a controversy when he was shooting for the film Mere Des Main starring Madhurima Tuli in Indore and directed by Arif Hamid. He said that when he asked for his payment after the shoot, he was told to shoot for 40 more days to receive any payment due to which he lost 2 films. He also claimed that he only received half the payment and rejected to do the dubbing for the film. He accused the producer Ravindra Bishnoi of luring him to act in the film on the pretext of fake promises as Raj was told that Swanand Kirkire would be the lyricist of the film; however, he later found that was not the case. When he found that Ravindra was finding another artist to dub for his role, he threatened that he had not given the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and would file a formal complaint in the Cine & TV Artistes’ Association of India (CINTAA) and the local court if they promoted the movie by dubbing it with the help of any artist other than him. Ravindra responded to the allegations by saying that there were some issues regarding the payment; however, he would get the dubbing done by Raj himself.
Facts/Trivia
- He won the Best Director award for his film Thar in the OTT Film category at the 2022 Indian Television Academy Awards, India.
Raj Singh Chaudhary (right) wth Anil Kapoor after winning the Best Director award for Thar film
- While making the film Thar, he took inspiration from Clint Eastwood’s trilogy Dollars and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained film. He also used references from his personal life as he used his father’s jacket as the costume of Anil Kapoor and used a Yezdi bike as his father liked riding Yezdi bikes. He also appeared on an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show.
- In 2007, his movie Antardwand won the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues.
- He has directed various advertisements with reputed sportspersons including Roger Federer and Virat Kohli.
Raj Singh Chaudhary (centre) with Roger Federer (left) and Boris Becker
- He has a friendship of more than 2 decades with Lara Bhupathi and runs a production house in partnership with her.
An old photo of Raj Singh Chaudhary (left) with Lara Bhupathi