Rahul Dev Kaushal (born 27 September 1968) is an Indian actor and former

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

who predominantly works in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, Telugu,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

and Odia language films He also participated in Bigg Boss (Hindi season 10) and was evicted on day 63.

Early life

Rahul Dev Kaushal was born on 27 September, 1968 in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, India into a

Punjabi Hindu Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis and are natives of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Punjabi Hindus are the third-largest religious g ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

family with ancestral roots in a village in Jalandhar district. Rahul Dev and his younger brother, Mukul Dev, were born to Hari Dev, who was an Assistant

Commissioner of Police A police commissioner is the head of a police department, responsible for overseeing its operations and ensuring the effective enforcement of laws and maintenance of public order. They develop and implement policies, manage budgets, and coordinate ...

. Hari Dev died on April 17, 2019 at the age of 91. Their

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

-born father had exposed the brothers to Afghan culture and could himself speak both

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

and

Farsi Persian ( ), also known by its endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoke ...

. Dev was educated at the St. Columba's School,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. In 1993, while in his final year of college studying to be an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, he was discovered by fashion designer Rohit Khosla, who encouraged him to pursue modeling, a path he chose in 1994. He also has a sister, Rashmi.

Career

Model

Dev was one of the top Indian male models of the 1990s, itself considered the best decade for Indian male models. For his professional work he often switched between Delhi and

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, where had moved in 1996. He featured in ad commercials for important brands such as Tata and

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

as well lifestyle and entertainment magazines. Dev started his career as a professional model in 1994 and retired from modeling in 2002 to focus more on acting.

Actor

Films

Dev made his screen debut in the 2000 film ''

Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world champi ...

'' where he played a villainous role for which he was nominated for the 2001 Filmfare Best Villain Award. He then moved into Malayalam cinema, playing the role of an assassin Sheik Imran in

Amal Neerad Amal Neerad (born 13 February 1978) is an Indian film director, cinematographer and producer who mainly works in Malayalam cinema. He attended the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata (first batch). He was awarded the National F ...

's '' Sagar Alias Jacky Reloaded''. (2009). He also appeared as a villain in the Punjabi movie ''Dharti'' in 2011. Two years later, he made a comeback with '' Sringaravelan''. He appeared in Bhojpuri film '' Dulhan Chahi Pakistan Se 2'' in 2018.

Television

In December 2013, Dev made his television debut, playing the role of the demon Arunasur in the mythological TV series '' Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev''.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Dev's wife Rina died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

on 16 May 2009. The couple had been married for 11 years and have a son, Sidhart. Dev has spoken about the experience of being a single father. As of 2020 he was in a relationship with model and actress

Mugdha Godse Mugdha Veira Godse (born 26 July 1986) is an Indian actress and model who works in Hindi films. A former model, Godse was a semi-finalist at the Femina Miss India 2004 competition. She made her acting debut in Madhur Bhandarkar's 2008 film, '' ...

Business ventures

In 1994, when he became a model, Dev also opened his own company, ''Rap Overseas,'' producing and exporting leather garments.

Cricket

An enthusiast of cricket in his youth, Dev represented Delhi at under-19 level and was coached by the influential Gurcharan Singh.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dev, Rahul Living people Punjabi people Punjabi Hindus Indian male film actors Indian male models Male actors from New Delhi Male actors in Telugu cinema Male actors in Punjabi cinema Male actors in Hindi cinema Zee Cine Awards winners 20th-century Indian male actors 21st-century Indian male actors Male actors in Malayalam cinema Male actors in Bhojpuri cinema Male actors in Tamil cinema Male actors in Kannada cinema 1968 births Contestants on Indian game shows Participants in Indian reality television series International Indian Film Academy Awards winners Actors from Delhi Models from Delhi People of Punjabi descent St. Columba's School, Delhi alumni