SAMANTHA PROFILE (BIOGRAPHY)
Though Samantha took the Telugu industry by storm as Jessie in the Telugu version of Gautham Vasudev Menon's Yeh Maya Chesava, this Chennai girl was introduced to the world of cinema by the well known cinematographer Ravi Varman in Moscoiwin Kaveri.
It was Samantha's luck that Yeh Maya Chesava got released first. Both Moscowin Kaveri and her second Tamil film Bana Kathadi released after Menon's film and bombed at the box office.
It is Samantha's confidence that got her the role of Jessie in Menon's film. The Telugu version started only after Menon finished 60 per cent of Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya with Simbu and Trisha.
When Samantha heard that her favourite director was looking for someone to reprise Trisha's role in Telugu, she went for the audition even though she didn't speak a word of Telugu! Yes, her father is a Telugu and mother, a Malayali, but she calls herself "a Tamilian born and brought up in Chennai".
At the audition she had to look into the eyes of Gautham Menon and utter a few lines in Telugu but she had no idea what the words meant. It didn t matter because three days later, she was selected to play Jessie opposite Nag Chaitanya.
"Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that I would one day be working in a Gautham Menon film! That, too, so early in my career. I did not even dare to dream of something like that. I think I must have done something good sometime in my life to have got the chance to act in his film," she said later.
Acting the part of Jessie was challenging for her as she is quite unlike the mature Jessie. She is a bubbly and energetic person, she says, and it was very difficult for her to be calm and reserved.
She admitted later that if Jessie's portrayal was good, it was all because of the efforts of Gautham Vasudev Menon as she just did what he told her. "It would have been impossible to essay Jessie if it weren't for Gautham Menon," she said.
She confessed that her major struggle was with the language. But by the time the shooting got over, she knew the dialogues of the entire film by heart. For someone for whom learning and speaking Telugu dialogue was the toughest part of Yeh Maya Chesava, it s creditable that she has become the most sought after heroine in Telugu.
She is now acting with Mahesh Babu in Dookudu and NTR Jr in Brindavanam.
When she was first offered Dookudu opposite Mahesh Babu, to be directed by Srinu Vytla, her first reaction was, 'Are you kidding? Don't play the fool with me.' Nobody was playing the fool, and Dookudu releases this week.
At present, she is acting in Gautham Menon's tri-lingual romantic love story. She is paired opposite Jiiva in Tamil, and Aditya Roy Kapoor in Hindi, but the Telugu actor is yet to be chosen. This film is going to be her big ticket to a wider audience.
