Rahul Dev

Rahul Dev Kaushal (born 27 September 1968) is an Indian actor and former model who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam language films ^[1][2] He also participated in Bigg Boss (Hindi season 10) and was evicted on day 63.^[3][4]

Rahul Dev
Rahul Dev in 2014
Born	Rahul Dev Kaushal (1968-09-27) 27 September 1968 (age 56) New Delhi, India
Alma mater	St. Columba's School
Occupations	Actor model
Years active	1994 – present
Spouse	Reena Dev ​ ​ (m. 1998; died 2009)​
Children	1
Relatives	Mukul Dev (brother)

Early life

Rahul Dev Kaushal was born on 27 September, 1968 in New Delhi, India into a Punjabi Hindu Brahmin family with ancestral roots in a village in Jalandhar district.^[5]

Rahul Dev and his brother, Mukul Dev, are the sons of Hari Dev who was an Assistant Commissioner of Police.^[6] Hari Dev died in 2019 at the age of 91.^[7] Their Punjab-born father Hari Dev had exposed the brothers to Afghan culture and could himself speak both Pashto and Farsi.^[8]

Dev was educated at the St. Columba's School, Delhi.^[9]

In 1993, while in his final year of college studying to be an engineer, he was discovered by fashion designer Rohit Khosla, who encouraged him to pursue modeling, a path he chose in 1994.^[9]

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, where had moved in 1996. He featured in ad commercials for important brands such as Tata and Raymond as well lifestyle and entertainment magazines.^[10]

Dev started his career as a professional model in 1994 and retired from modeling in 2002 to focus more on acting.^[9]

Actor

Films

Dev made his screen debut in the 2000 film Champion 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'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.^[11]

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.^[12]

Personal life

Relationships and family

Dev's wife Rina died of cancer on 16 May 2009. The couple had been married for 11 years and have a son,^[13] Sidhart. Dev has spoken about the experience of being a single father.^[14] As of 2020 he was in a relationship with model and actress Mugdha Godse.^[15]

Business ventures

In 1994, when he became a model, Dev also opened his own company, Rap Overseas, producing and exporting leather garments.^[9]

Cricket

An enthusiast of cricket in his youth, Dev represented Delhi at under-19 level and was coached by the influential Gurcharan Singh.^[9]

Filmography

Film

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
2000	Champion	Naseer Ahmed	Hindi	[16]
2001	Aashiq	Baburao		[17]
	Asoka	Bheema		[citation needed]
	Indian	Pratap Sinha		[18]
	Narasimha	Rasool Akhtar	Tamil
	Akasa Veedhilo	Terrorist	Telugu
2002	Takkari Donga	Shaka	Telugu	[19]
	Chalo Ishq Ladaaye	Raja	Hindi	[20]
	23 March 1931: Shaheed	Sukhdev
	Awara Paagal Deewana	Vikrant Prasad
2003	Parasuram	Shankaran Kutti/Akash	Tamil
	Kyon?	Inspector Aditya Solanki	Hindi
	Supari	Papad
	88 Antop Hill	IGP Arvind Khanvilkar
	Simhadri	Bala Nair	Telugu
	Footpath	Shekhar Srivastav	Hindi
	Seetayya	Chandra Naidu	Telugu
2004	Omkara	Khaan	Kannada
	Agnipankh	Vishal	Hindi
	Bardaasht	Corrupt ACP Yeshwant Thakur
	Aan: Men at Work	Baba Yeda Pathan / Yeda Bhai
	Andhrawala	Dhanraj	Telugu
	Mass	Seshu/Shatru
	Vidyardhi	Salim Ibrahim
2005	Insan	Azhar Khan/Munna	Hindi
	Narasimhudu	JD's son	Telugu
	Athadu	Sadhu
	Mazhai	Deva	Tamil
	Allari Pidugu	J. K.	Telugu
	Jai Chiranjeeva	Asghar
2006	Fight Club – Members Only	Sandy	Hindi
	Asthram	Karim	Telugu
	Jaane Hoga Kya?	Special Investigations Officer Rathore	Hindi
	Kachchi Sadak	Javed Ali
	Iqraar by Chance	Sikka
	Chinnodu	Sri Sailam	Telugu
	Seetha Raamudu	Ramulu
	Sarhad Paar	Bakatawar	Hindi
	Pournami	Zamindar	Telugu
	Shree	Shetty	Kannada
2007	Mahanayak	Ranjit	Odia
	Soundarya	Prakash	Kannada
	Okkadunnadu	Sona Bhai's nephew	Telugu
	Muni	Mastan Bhai	Tamil
	Munna	Aatma	Telugu
	Cape Karma	Manav	Hindi
	Tulasi	Basavaraju	Telugu
2008	D	Raj	Hindi
	Bindaas	D	Kannada
	Jimmy	ACP Rajeshwar Vyas	Hindi
	Bombaat	Das	Kannada
	Arasangam	Chandru	Tamil
	Mukhbiir	Saaya	Hindi
	Bank		Telugu
	Sankat City	Suleman Supari	Hindi
	Kidnap	Irfan
	U Me Aur Hum	Jeetu
2009	Shatru Sanghar	Rahul	Odia
	Mestri		Telugu
	Premi No. 1	Ranjit	Odia
	Aa Dekhen Zara	Captain	Hindi
	Kal Kissne Dekha	Marshal
	Sagar Alias Jackie Reloaded	Sheikh Imran (Sniper)	Malayalam
	Yodha		Kannada
	Aadhavan	Abdul Kulkarni	Tamil
	Blue	Gulshan Samnani	Hindi
2010	Shaapit	Prof. Pashupathy
2011	Run Bhola Run
	Veera	Dhanraj	Telugu
	Dhada	R.D.
	Dharti	Natchaar Singh	Punjabi
2012	Mirza The Untold Story	Jeet
	Lovely	David	Telugu
	Dhammu	Police Officer
2013	Shadow	Jeeva
	Naayak	Babji
	Sringaravelan	Vikram	Malayalam
	Bhai	Bhavani	Telugu
	Rangbaaz	Lucky Vai	Bengali
2014	Yevadu	Veeru Bhai	Telugu
	Jaihind 2		Tamil/Telugu
	Abhimanyu		Kannada
	Loukyam	Sathya	Telugu
2015	Ek Paheli Leela	Bhairav	Hindi
	Lailaa O Lailaa	Victor Rana	Malayalam
	10 Endrathukulla	Daksha Bhai	Tamil
	RajadhiRaja	John Tiger	Malayalam
	Vedalam	Rahul	Tamil
2016	Shikari	Dev	Bengali
	Okka Ammayi Thappa	Aslam Bhai	Telugu
	Dishoom	Altaaf	Hindi
2017	Sathya	Don David	Malayalam
	E
	Mubarakan	Akalpreet Sandhu	Hindi
	I'm Not A Terrorist	Mustaffa	Malayalam/Hindi
2018	Inttelligent	Vicky Bhai	Telugu
	22 Days		Hindi
	Dulhan Chahi Pakistan Se 2		Bhojpuri
	Padayottam	Samad	Malayalam
2019	Rocky		Marathi	Marathi film[21]
	Pagalpanti	Smuggler Kazaam	Gujarati
2020	Operation Parindey	Monty Singh	Hindi	Released on ZEE5[22][23]
	Torbaaz	Qazar		Released on Netflix
2021	Ranam		Kannada
	Raat Baaki Hai	Rajesh Ahlawat	Hindi	Released on ZEE5
	Arjun Gowda		Kannada
2022	Bikkhov	Malik Pradhan	Bengali	Bangladeshi film
	The Legend	Member of VJ's pharmaceutical mafia	Tamil
2023	Gaslight	SP Ashok Tanwar	Hindi	Released on Hotstar
	1920: Horrors of the Heart	Shantanu
	Kill Him	Anna Seth	Bengali
	Mastaney	Nader Shah	Punjabi
2024	Shivrayancha Chhava	Kakar Khan	Marathi
	The Miranda Brothers	Morocho	Hindi
	Naam	Vikram	Hindi
	Dard	Vasu Rao Surve "V.R.S Bhai"	Hindi/Bengali	Bilingual film
2025	Good Bad Ugly	Convict	Tamil
	Welcome To The Jungle †	TBA	Hindi
2006 Varanasi – The Untold †	TBA	Hindi

Television

Year	Title	Role	Ref
2005	Games Bond	Host	[24]
2010	Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 3	Contestant	[25]
2013	Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev	Arunasur	[1]
2015–2016	Power Couple	Contestant	[26]
2016	CID: Karo Ya Maro	Katori Damta
	Bigg Boss 10	Contestant	[27]
2017	Dil Boley Oberoi	Kali Thakur	[28]
2021	The Empire	Wazir khan
2023	Adhura	Officer Bedi
2025	Reeta Sanyal	M. Raj Thakral

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
2017–2018	The Test Case	Naib Subedar Kirpal Bhatti	[29]
2020	Who's Your Daddy??	Prem Singh	[30]
	Poison 2	Sikander Malik	[31]
2021	LSD: Love, Scandal and Doctors	Dr. Rana
2022	Hunter Tootega Nahi Todega	Hooda Kartoos

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Award	Result	Notes
2001	Champion	Filmfare Best Villain Award	Nominated
2004	Simhadri	Filmfare Award South for Best Villain- Telugu	Nominated
	Footpath	Zee Cine Award Best Villain	Won