He moved on to feature in Hindi television serials, his debut show was the romantic drama Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil (2008), followed by the lead role in the soap opera Pavitra Rishta (2009–2011).

Abetment to suicide charges were filed against his former girlfriend, while the Supreme Court refused to quash a case against his sister Priyanka which alleged she had supplied him psychotropic anti-depressants without proper medical consultation, using a forged prescription.

[28] The character was killed early in the show, but due to popularity among viewers was brought back in the series finale as a spirit looking on as his family celebrated coming out of difficult times.

[29] The performance had made an impression on the producer Ekta Kapoor who vouched for him to be cast as the lead in another series Pavitra Rishta,[26] reportedly against the wishes of the hosting channel, Zee TV.

[17] He was subsequently cast in the role of Ishaan Bhatt, a district-level cricketer who was a victim of politics in the selection fraternity and one of the three leads, along with Rajkummar Rao and Amit Sadh.

[46][47] Before the release of his debut film Kai Po Che!, Rajput was signed in by Rajkumar Hirani for a role in the Aamir Khan-starrer satirical drama called PK.

[17] The film was a romantic comedy, where Rajput played the character of Raghu Ram Sitaram, a tour guide who fell in love with a woman on the way to his own marriage, it featured Parineeti Chopra and Vaani Kapoor.

[51] Following the release of his first two films, Rajput was described by the veteran director Shekhar Kapur as "one of the most inspiring young actors to emerge out of India" and was occasionally referred to as the "next SRK".

[60][61] In September 2013, Rajput began collaborating with Shekhar Kapur for his upcoming project Paani, a film set in the future that showcased a world where wars where being fought over water.

[68] The project was initially faced with various difficulties including objections from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Dhoni's demand for a large royalty.

[75][42][76] He also made a cameo appearance in the comedy film Welcome to New York,[77] which was released on 23 February 2018 and where the lead characters met Rajput but confused him for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

[79] Earlier in 2014, reports had emerged that Rajput was being signed in alongside Alia Bhatt for the starring roles in the largest budget production of the producer–directors Homi Adajania and Dinesh Vijan.

[83] Rajput and Sanon later featured in a 2017 T-Series music video of the song named Paas Aao, composed by the duo Armaan and Amaal Mallik.

[4] The second biopic that Rajput was to feature in was tentatively titled as Murli: The Unsung Hero, where he would play the role of the disabled jawan turned Paralympics gold medalist Murlikant Petkar.

[85] In June 2016, Rajput along with Parineeti Chopra and Irrfan Khan were also announced as the lead of the Adajania directed film called Takadum with shooting scheduled to begin in October but the project was being put on hold due to issues related to script re-adaptation.

[79] In the film which was to be directed by Sanjay Puran Singh, Rajput would have starred alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui and R. Madhavan and was cast in the role of an astronaut, for which he was even sent to NASA on a training module in 2017.

[89][90] Later in December 2017, it was announced that he was signed in by Abhishek Chaubey, the director of Udta Punjab for his next film titled Sonchiriya, where he would star alongside Bhumi Pednekar.

[91] Raabta was released on 9 June 2017,[92] which subsequently received mixed reviews from critics and emerged as a flop in the box office, unable to recover its large production cost.

[96] Earlier in March 2017, Rajput had also begun shooting alongside Jacqueline Fernandez for Karan Johar's Dharma Productions film, by then titled as Drive.

[109] The film however soon became embroidered in controversy as the Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that it was promoting Jihad by showing an interfaith couple and called for the imposition of a ban on it.

[114] On 2 May 2018, Rajput was inducted as a partner in a company named Innsaei Ventures, which was founded on 26 April 2018; following which he was appointed as one of its three directors, the others being Varun Mathur and Saurabh Mishra.

[60][18] The film was directed by Abhishek Chaubey, produced by Ronnie Screwvala and featured the real life character of Daku Man Singh, played by Bajpayee.

[130] In an interview in January 2019, before the release of Sonchiriya, Rajput had stated that he was in the talks for 12 other films of which Chanda Mama Door Ke and the biopic of Murlikant Petkar were yet to be finalised.

[132] He had opted out of the production of Chanda Mama Door Ke in the previous year citing timing conflict in scheduling for its shooting and had stated that he would produce his own space film through Innsaei Ventures.

[136][137][138] On 6 January 2020, Rajput also founded a nonprofit organisation (NGO) named Front India for World Foundation with the stated intent of working towards the eradication of poverty, hunger and malnutrition and promotion of better healthcare and sanitation.

[144] Based on the novel by the same name The Fault in Our Stars written by the author John Green,[147] the film was initially titled Kizie aur Manny and was scheduled to release in theatres in 2019.

[166] In January 2016, Rajput confirmed that a lavish wedding would take place in December,[167] but the relationship ended prior to that, with the pair maintaining silence on the reasons for the cancellation.

Rajput stated in an August 2017 interview that his collection was not for film research, but covered personal interests in multiple disciplines, including cognitive science and behavioural economics.

[189][190][191] On 25 July, Rajput's family lodged a first information report with police in Patna, where his father lives, accusing Rhea Chakraborty and five others of abetment of suicide.

"[198] On 7 September, Chakraborty filed an FIR against the late actor's sisters, claiming they had supplied him psychotrophic anti-depressants[199] without proper medical consultation and using a forged prescription.