New Delhi: When Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu was approached for the item number “Oo Antava Oo Oo Antava” song for the film Pushpa The Rise, she was in the middle of her separation from husband and Telugu actor Naga Chaitanya. Samantha says that her friends, family, well-wishers etc., were against her taking the dancer’s role, but she decided to go forward with it, The Indian Express (TIE) reported.
The song from the Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna starrer was a super hit, and Samantha received applause for her performance from many quarters.
Samantha said that her dearest and nearest advised her not to do the song since it was offered to her just after she announced her separation from Chaitanya. TIE cited her from her talks with Miss Malini during the promotions of “Shaakuntalam”.
She said that after the separation, she was in no mood to sit at home since she didn’t do anything wrong. When she was offered the item song, those close to her said like, “You will sit at home, you will not do an item song just when you have announced the separation,” TIE quoted. Even her friends, who used to encourage her to challenge herself, told her to back off. But she decided otherwise and did the song. She was of the thought that why she should hide.
She said that she did nothing wrong and was not going to wait for all trolling, abuse and hate “to go away and slowly creep back in like someone who committed a crime”.
She said that she gave her marriage 100 per cent, and it did not work out. But she was not going to beat herself up and feel guilty for something she didn’t do, she said.
About the song, she said that she loved the lyrics and how it was positioned. She had never done an item song before, and she loved exploring different characters.
“I looked at the song just as another character and not as an item number. It just came from a place of me doing something new and nothing else,” TIE quoted her.
Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu announced on social media in 2021 that they were separating. Post their separation, Samantha told Karan Johar on Koffee With Karan season 7 that her separation from Naga was acrimonious, TIE writes.