Samantha Akkineni

Samantha Ruth Prabhu (formerly Akkineni; born 28 April 1987) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Telugu and Tamil films.

She is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards South.

Samantha was born on 28 April 1987, her father Joseph Prabhu is Telugu and mother Ninette Prabhu is Malayali.

She was born and brought up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the youngest child of the family, with two elder brothers Jonath and David.

She can speak both Tamil and Telugu fluently.

As a part of her education, Samantha was schooled at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and then completed a degree in commerce at Stella Maris College, Chennai.

Towards the end of her undergraduate degree, she became involved in modelling, notably working with Naidu Hall, through which she was first spotted by filmmaker Ravi Varman.

The shooting for the film began in August 2007, with Samantha, then briefly credited with the screen name Yasodha, joining the team later in the year.

In an interview held in 2008, Ravi Varman mentioned that he had decided that Samantha would be the lead actress for his film within three minutes after viewing one of her commercial assignments.

He went on to describe her as an actress with "intelligence" and "potential", whilst drawing comparisons with the noted actress, Revathi.

In August 2008, while still completing her last three projects, Samantha also signed up to play the lead role of a modern girl in the Narain-starrer, Pookada Ravi, which was later shelved.

The actress successfully auditioned and was signed up for the project in August 2009.

After a brief stint as a model while pursuing a degree in commerce, Samantha made her acting debut in the Telugu romance film Ye Maaya Chesave (2010), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South.

Samantha began her professional film career with Gautham Vasudev Menon's Telugu film, Ye Maaya Chesave (2010).

The film, simultaneously made in Tamil as Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), was highly anticipated prior to release, primarily due to the first time collaboration between Gautham Menon and composer A. R. Rahman.

The film was shot in India and the United States, and it was released on 26 February 2010.

Post-release, she revealed that Menon played a "crucial part in moulding her as an actress", teaching her how to remain natural and comfortable in front of the screen, even if she had no dialogues in a scene.

In the film, Samantha played the lead character Jessie, a Malayali Saint Thomas Christian girl living in Hyderabad, with whom the male protagonist, played by Naga Chaitanya, falls in love.

Upon release of the film, Samantha received highly positive reviews for her portrayal, with the film itself garnering widespread critical acclaim.

Critics at Sify praised Samantha as a "scene-stealer" and her beauty as "alluring", adding, "she was the girl to watch out for."

Jeevi from Idlebrain.com, wrote that "Samantha's debut is one of the best heroine debuts in Telugu cinema" and noted that the "minute expressions she gave spoke volumes about her", whilst labelling the film as a "classic".

Her performance in Ye Maaya Chesave earned her first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu and won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South and the Nandi Special Jury Award.

Samantha appeared in a cameo role in the Tamil version of the film, portraying an assistant director who becomes an actress.

Both the Telugu and the Tamil versions of the films proved to be major successes, propelling Samantha to stardom.

She followed up her collaborations with Gautham Menon and A. R. Rahman by appearing in the music video for the World Classical Tamil Conference 2010 promotional song, Semmozhiyaana Thamizh Mozhiyaam, which Menon directed and Rahman composed.

Samantha's next release was the romantic drama, Baana Kaathadi (2010), opposite Adharvaa.

The film was actually the third Tamil project signed by the actress, but its release preceded the first two that she was contracted for due to delays in their completion.

Samantha portrayed a student of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), the first such role in Tamil cinema.

Her next release was Ravi Varman's Moscowin Kavery (2010), originally the first film she began work on.

However, due to Ravi Varman's prior commitments as cinematographer in other projects, the film languished in development hell, eventually releasing in August 2010.

The film earned negative reviews from critics, though Samantha's performance was credited as one of the sole highlights that the film offered.

Samantha then went on to feature in Vamsi Paidipally's Telugu film Brindaavanam (2010) in which she played a supporting role alongside NTR Jr and Kajal Aggarwal.

Her performance as Indu was well-received despite having a shorter screen time, and the film became her second successful venture in Telugu.

Over the next few years, she played the leading lady in top-grossing androcentric films such as Dookudu (2011), Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2012), Attarintiki Daredi (2013), Kaththi (2014), Theri (2016), 24 (2016), Mersal (2017), and Rangasthalam (2018).

She became the second actress to win both the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil and Best Actress – Telugu in the same year, for her performances in the 2012 films Neethaane En Ponvasantham and Eega, respectively.

Samantha featured in the big-budget Telugu film, Dookudu (2012) alongside Mahesh Babu, which became one of the most successful Telugu films of all time.

Her performance in A Aa (2016) won Samantha her fourth Filmfare Award, and she gained further praise for her performances in Mahanati (2018), Super Deluxe (2019), and Majili (2019), and the Amazon Prime Video thriller series The Family Man (2021).

The last of these earned her a Filmfare OTT Award.

In 2023, she had two critical and commercial failures in Shaakuntalam and Kushi.

Samantha is the founder of a charitable trust Pratyusha Support.