Patralekhaa admits that her career struggles ‘pained’ husband Rajkummar Rao: ‘Acting is a lonely process’

Bollywood couple Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa starred together in the critically acclaimed 2014 film CityLights. While Rajkummar had made his debut in films by this time and had starred in projects like Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Shahid, Kai Po Che, the Hansal Mehta’s directorial marked Patralekhaa’s acing debut. Though after CityLights, Rajkummar’s career kept escalating, Patralekhaa struggled to get projects.

In a recent interaction, Patralekhaa shared how Rajkummar found it difficult to see her struggle to bag projects. Speaking to ETimes, Patralekhaa opened up on finally getting credit for her work in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. She said, “When you are not doing well, you hustle but when your partner or sibling isn’t doing well, that makes it more difficult. You feel you can’t do anything about it. That was Raj’s journey with me.” Patralekhaa admitted that while she was struggling, Rajkummar was seeing constant success. However, he never spoke about his projects to her so that it won’t pain her. “He would never talk about it, but I knew that my journey pained him a bit,” she added.

Rajkummar added his perspective during the conversation, expressing his support for his wife while acknowledging the isolating nature of acting. “I don’t know why she didn’t get enough deserving work after Citylights. I’m there for her, but acting is a personal lonely process,” he said.

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After CityLights, Patralekhaa appeared in a few films, but they failed to achieve box office success. However, she recently garnered critical acclaim for her role in the web series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, which is based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.