Samantha Ruth Prabhu: How the actor changed the game for herself and redefined her career

While Samantha had already established herself as a powerful artist in films, her cameo in the song Oo Antava in Allu Arjun’s Pushpa, brought out her glamorous side and how. Even though Pushpa: The Rise had names like Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil, Samantha’s cameo in one song brought her a separate fan base from not just her loyal fans in Telugu and Tamil but even in Hindi as well. Her inspired turn as Raji in The Family Man 2 established her as an actor across India.

Director Nandini Reddy, who helmed Samantha’s 2019 blockbuster Telugu film Oh! Baby says that the actor has made way for herself to this point where no one can approach her with a weak script.

Talking to indianexpress.com, Nandini says, “As an actor she has been growing phenomenally from her first first, she has constantly pushed the bar. Although she has done some very hero-centric roles, she gradually nudged the way to more fleshed out roles. I think it’s a tribute to her and her presence on screen that she is able to demand that out of a script and director. So that even if people go to her now, they don’t think they can go to her with just some random stuff.”

Nandini says Samantha has been very clear about what she wants to do. “Samantha chose the path of not playing the token heroine very early in her career. The minute she was in a position where she had some power to dictate that her presence has value, she started using it in a constructive way.”

The Family Man 2, for instance, was a bold choice for an actor of her stature, who has always played very glamorous roles. That’s the person she is. She doesn’t like to play it safe and always looks for a bigger mountain to climb,” says Nandini.

After The Family Man 2 and enormous buzz that Samantha created with Oo Antava, it was time for her to prove her mettle on the big screen and carry a project on her shoulders. In 2022, her film Yashoda released, in which she played the titular role and did some heavy-duty action scenes.

Samantha had till then played a love interest, a mother and even a grandmother on the big screen but her solo action heroine image came as a breath of fresh air for many. While the film didn’t deliver on the pan-India level, the film got solid support in the Telugu and Tamil market.  While Yashoda’s pan-India gross collection was Rs 20.2 crore, her Telugu collections alone brought in Rs 16.35cr, according to Sacnilk.com.

In the middle of all this, Samantha was also announced as the lead in the Indian offshoot of Russo Brothers’ Citadel. However, her film, Shaakuntalam, failed to find audience.

Observing the pattern of her solo films, trade analyst and film critic Jeevi believes it is something to take pride in. “Yashoda was a hit. She did four films, which were led by her. U Turn was received well; Oh Baby and Yashoda made money. Shaakuntalam was the only one that turned out to be a dud. When you have three hits out of four, it is a successful arc.

Nandini elaborates, “She is as gutsy as her choices. It’s not easy for a girl to come from a humble background in Chennai and make way to where she has reached today. It took a lot and she picked her skill sets on the way, be it her style quotient, or how to present her thoughts or her photographs… She takes a lot of moral responsibility for her film, which is why when something doesn’t go well, she takes it to heart and decides to work twice as hard the next time.”

When talking about Samantha being gutsy with her choices of films, one cannot ignore that she has been battling the auto-immune disease Myositis. Nandini, who is also a close friend of the actor, shares that it is Samanatha’s ability to push herself a little more every day makes her so strong.

“She is an extremely strong person. I think she has built that strength slowly; no one is born that strong. I don’t think she is the one to give up. Even on her worst days when she said ‘I don’t have the strength anymore’, somehow she always mustered the courage to take that one step further,” says Nandini.

Trade analyst Ramesh Bala says that Samantha getting a hit in Hindi is a matter of time, “She is already very popular in South and it’s only a matter of time that she will give a hit in Hindi also. When heroines go for female-centric films, the box office success might not be the same as male superstar. So, I think everyone has to work on it. In the next two or three years, she will see more success in Hindi also.”