Manam is ‘Manam’: Samantha

A day before the release of her upcoming film, the highly speculated ‘Manam’, actress Samantha tells us that she is feeling the pre-release jitters. “It always happens with every film of mine. But this time it’s more than ever!” she says. If she had to sum up ‘Manam’ in one word she would just say ‘Manam’ because “the film is all about ‘us’ as a family”.

All things ‘Manam’ has the distinction of being only the second film in the Indian film industry (the other was ‘Kal, Aaj Aur Kal’starring the Kapoor clan) that stars three generation of actors and the actress explains how special it is to her: “It’s not something that happens every day and not everybody has the chance to be part of something like this. It’s special to be part of this film. More so because not only is the film big but my character is of utmost importance to the script. If anybody else would have played my character I would have surely regretted it. I am lucky.”

Samantha has been called the glam doll for quite a while now and it seems she receives more attention for her looks than for her performances. But Samantha refutes that and says, “I began with ‘Ye Maya Chesave’ which needed a lot of acting potential. Then there was ‘Eega’ and ‘Yeto Vellipoindi Manasu’ and now there’s ‘Manam’. I make an attempt to work in at least one film in a year that showcases my acting prowess.”

The beauty further adds that though ‘Manam’ has received a lot of hype because of the involvement of the Akkineni family, she would have still done the film otherwise too. “It’s the script I believe in and director Vikram has a wonderful story in hand. In fact, I said a ‘yes’ as soon as I heard the story,” she says.

Talking about the director, Samantha tells us, “I initially couldn’t understand Vikram well but we have grown to become almost like best friends.”

Her character

I play two characters – a matured mother, Krishna, and a bubbly girl full of life, Priya – in one film and that is one thing I absolutely loved.

Working with actors belonging to three generations of the Akkineni clan helped Samantha give her best she says. “Each one of them gave their best and if I had to make a place for myself between them, I had to outdo them! And so I had to give my best too.”

The co-stars

Samantha will be pairing up with Naga Chaitanya for the third time after ‘Ye Maya Chesave’ and ‘Autonagar Surya’ so how has the familiarity worked for their chemistry? “When I began in ‘YMC’, it was a new language and big dialogues… I was nervous. We have been friends since then but now that I am a bit more confident, I feel a lot more comfortable and that results in better chemistry too.”

But there’s another lead actress in the film who is a lot more experienced too, Shriya Saran and there ought to be a comparison. But Samantha says, “I have seen Shriya’s movies earlier. She is a brilliant actress. But I think this is her best performance ever. In fact, she has never looked so beautiful.

The next and most important costar from ‘Manam’ would be the legendary Akkineni Nageswara Rao. And Samantha says it was an honour working with him. She tells us how he has been a “support” in times of insecurity, “During a function of ‘Ye Maya Chesave’, ANR garu had praised me for my performance. I never get affected by praise. But his was kind of special. And for a year or so whenever I felt insecure, I would just see the video of the function and feel reassured.”

The Akkinenis

“It was wonderful to see them sit together and talk. They make a beautiful family. Everybody says they are ‘The’ Akkinenis but when they are together, they are a normal, sweet family.”