Ahead of Yashoda, look at Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s career-defining choices: Super Deluxe to Pushpa 1

Samantha Ruth Prabhu was subjected to vicious online attacks in the wake of her separation from her ex-husband Naga Chaitanya. She was attacked for failing to live up to an ‘ideal wife’ image (whatever that means). But, that didn’t stop her progress. The actor found new fans in the north as she built on her inspired performance in The Family Man. Her debut on filmmaker Karan Johar’s — controversial, but highly popular talk show — Koffee with Karan further expanded her popularity. Not to mention that she outshined Bollywood star Akshay Kumar in that episode. To cash in on Samantha’s growing popularity across the country, her upcoming movie Yashoda is being released in Hindi across the north belt this Friday.

Just when everything seems to fall in place for Samantha, a new challenge pounces on her, threatening to upend everything she worked for all her life. “I’m not dying anytime soon. Yes, it is auto-immune. It’s taking time. It’s draining and tiring, but I have always been a fighter. I am going to fight,” she said in another interview.

Samantha has been diagnosed myositis when her career seems to be scaling new heights at a break-neck speed. She, however, has clarified at this stage, it’s not “life-threatening” but it has not been easy for her either.

Samantha on Koffee with Karan.

Despite challenges stemming from her current health condition, Samantha has shown up for Yashoda promotions. It’s an important film for her, allowing her to break away from stereotypes imposed on her by the industry. She has been gradually but steadily chipping away at the “cute girl” image, one film at a time.

Samantha has been making unconventional choices in the past few years. She played by the industry rules at first and after gaining enough clout over the last 12 years, she seems to be making her own rules.

Let’s look at the four career-defining choices that have put Samantha in a league of her own:

Super Deluxe

Samantha’s Vaembu is not an ‘ideal wife’ defined by patriarchal views. She is whimsy and even unapologetic about the choices she makes. Vaembu is caught in a sticky situation. She cheats on her husband Mugil (Fahadh Faasil) and she also uses his help to get rid of her lover’s body, who suddenly dies in her bed. While Mugil struggles to come to terms with the betrayal, Vaembu is unmoved. Mugil cannot seem to make Vaembu feel ashamed of her choices. Through her character, director Thiagarajan Kumararaja would have demonstrated a clear distinction between consensual relationships and rape. While Vaembu seems to have had no qualms in sleeping with her lover, she’s reduced to a nervous wreck when an insidious cop forces her to have sex with him. Just because she cheated on her husband, she cannot be denied her rights, respect and morality.

The Family Man 2

Samantha’s Raji doesn’t have a lot of speaking lines in the 9-episode season of The Family Man 2. Instead, she gets to perform a variety of stunt sequences, which are whistle-worthy. In the aftermath of the total defeat of the LTTE in the long-drawn, bloody, civil war in Sri Lanka, Raji, a trained assassin of the LTTE, hides in Chennai. She later gets enlisted to carry out a deadly attack against India. Raji may be a trained killer but as a woman, she’s still vulnerable to exploitation. Samantha would have done a swell job striking a balance between a cold-blooded killer and a helpless woman.

Pushpa: The Rise

If Karan Johar were to ask his guests to rank woman actors based on their “hotness,” Samantha is unlikely to have even featured in that list. But, that was before December 2021. Samantha caused an earthquake of sorts with her sensuous dance performance to the chartbuster, “Oo Antava.” It was her debut performance in a special dance number in a movie, which the industry crudely calls an “item song.” And she kicked the ball out of the park. She was no longer known for her “cuteness.” She began to confidently own and express her sexuality both on and off-screen.

Yashoda

The film is yet to release and one can’t vouch for its critical and commercial success yet. Judging from the trailer, Samantha is seen playing a victim of the crime syndicate, who fights her way back to light with the help of a man. She could be seen outrunning hunting dogs and overpowering muscular men. The industry would have never imagined Samantha doing an action role when she made her screen debut as a girl-next-door in Ye Maaya Chesave (2010).