She’s been around for a long time now. She’s the queen of hearts and has bagged roles after roles and is today, one of the most sought-after actresses in both Telugu and Tamil industries. She’s mostly been part of commercial cinema, often being seen as the damsel in distress and playing the hot diva.
Samantha did start of as the saree-clad Jessie in Ye Maya Chesave. But we were going to see a lot of her in days to come.
She became the girl every biggie wanted to associate with not just because she is beautiful but also because she’s this rare combination of talent and mass appeal as well. No wonder then, that she’s the actress who’s got some of the biggest hits of recent times in her kitty, not to forget having the most number of $1 Million films at her US box-office. But her combination of assets has proved to be both an advantage and disadvantage for her. While it brought her some of her best roles – esepcially in Manam and Theri – it was the same element which left her in the midst of a rut because despite her performing amazingly each time, she wasn’t the whole point of the film most of the time.
Case in point would be the recent release Janatha Garage where the sequence in which she and NTR are separated from each other is an endorsement for her abilities. It is in this sequence, you are left with so much of sadness not for anyone else, but for her, because she is reflective of every such woman who has to lose her heart out to the larger patriarchal setup where choices are defined by what men want. And Samantha portrayed all these emotions with extremely minimum expressions. It is needless to say, we all cried with her and for her. But in the larger picture, the film wasn’t even about her and not many would go out remembering her contribution in the film.
And in this case, she reminds us of Trisha, another very talented actress who enjoyed immense mass appeal but rarely got a chance to prove her mettle with roles that weren’t etched well. But since Samantha is in the prime of her career, we have been wishing that she rethinks her career steps.
Well, Samantha’s latest Twitter updates got us thinking. “Realising just how hard it is to get a meaningful role for a heroine in the south ??????. #timeforchange #nowornever. I haven’t signed as many films as I d like too only and only because there are no good roles . As disheartening as it is to say . (sic),” she wrote.
We did some digging as well and learnt that the actress has decided to slowly bid adieu to roles that only require her to glam up and play a menial role in a hero-centric film. No wonder, she hasn’t signed a lot of films lately, and as we hoped, she seems to be doing some self introspection. It is very heartening to know that she is keen to choose films with strong women characters à la her role in A… Aa.
The film industry is badly in need of roles that portray women in a strong light. One can only hope that we are slowly moving towards a new trend where films with women as key protagonists are often making it to the Rs 50 crore mark. Bollywood has been working towards the direction for a while now. If our actresses start endorsing new and interesting scripts, one thinks there’s a bright way ahead. And it won’t be long before a Pink or a Queen is made in our territory. Would that be possible? Time to try ‘Sam’thing different, eh Sam?
