Samantha Ruth Prabhu Birthday Special: Here's Looking At Her Best Films

Samantha Ruth Prabhu celebrates her 35th birthday today. She began her acting career in 2010 and has since built a name for herself in the industry with super hit films and many memorable performances. It is rumoured that the actor will soon be making her Bollywood debut and will also star in director Philip John's Hollywood project Arrangements of Love.

Currently, Prabhu is gearing up for the release of Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal, a Tamil-language romantic comedy film, also starring Vijay Sethupathi and Nayanthara. Coincidentally, the film is theatrically releasing on her birthday. The plot of the film explores the concept of polyamory, as in the flick, Vijay Sethupathi's character Rambo falls in love with both Nayanthara's Kanmani and Khatija, played by Samantha Ruth Prabhu.

Initially, Prabhu was seen as the lead female character in hero-centric Telugu and Tamil films, including box office hits such as Dookudu (2011), Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2012), Attarintiki Daredi (2013), and Kaththi (2013). Her subsequent films, Theri (2016), 24 (2016), Mersal (2017), Rangasthalam (2018), and Mahanati (2018), were all successful, and her performance in A..Aa (2016) was also favourably received. However,  in 2019, the release of films like Super Deluxe, Majili, and Oh! Baby, and then Jaanu in 2020, cemented her position both as a performer and as a star who could carry a film on her shoulders.

For Samantha Ruth Prabhu birthday, we bring you a selection of her best films:

Ye Maaya Chesave

Samantha Ruth Prabhu's debut film was Ye Maaya Chesave, a Telugu-language love drama. In the film, Naga Chaitanya plays Karthik, a Hindu engineering graduate who aspires to be a film director. He falls in love with Jessie, played by Prabhu, his Christian neighbour, but her father opposes their relationship owing to religious issues. The film follows these star crossed lovers as they navigate romance and heartbreak.

Eega

In the fantasy film Eega, Samantha Ruth Prabhu plays Bindu. The film also features two of the Telugu film industry's biggest names- Nani and Sudeep. Nani (played by Nani), who is in love with his next-door neighbour Bindu, is assassinated by Sudeep (played by Sudeep), a wealthy industrialist who is drawn to Bindu and regards Nani as a competitor. Nani gets reincarnated as a housefly in order to avenge his death and protect Bindu from Sudeep, who is obsessed with her. The film was directed by SS Rajamouli and was dubbed in Hindi and released as Makkhi.

Manam

Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya, Shriya Saran, and Samantha Ruth Prabhu feature in this fantasy drama which takes place over the course of a hundred years, from 1913 to 2013. The movie explores the notions of rebirth and eternal love. Prabhu plays a crucial role in the film, and the secret to her early success in the industry was the way she flawlessly combined commercial films like Dookudu with performance-oriented projects like Manam.

A.. Aa

A.. Aa is a romantic drama about a family. The film is partially inspired by Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani's novel Meena, which was translated into Vijaya Nirmala's 1973 film by the same name. When Anasuya Ramalingam, played by Samantha Ruth Prabhu, an affluent and stern businesswoman, is sent to see her aunt in a village, she falls in love with Anand (Nithiin), an ex-chef. The success of this film gave Prabhu the courage to pursue female-oriented roles.

Suggested Reading: Six South Indian Women Actors Who Have Bagged Promising Roles In Bollywood Films

Oh! Baby

Oh! Baby is a Telugu fantasy comedy film which is a remake of Miss Granny, a 2014 South Korean movie. Here, veteran actor Lakshmi plays Savitri, a 70-year-old woman who is unhappy with her life, and blames her problems on God. When she has her portrait made in a studio, she is transformed into a stunning 24-year-old woman, played by Prabhu. Savitri, in her young avatar, reclaims her life and youth that she had spent caring for her son singlehandedly in the past.

Rangasthalam

This Telugu-language historical action film stars Ram Charan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, with Aadhi Pinisetty, Jagapathi Babu, Prakash Raj, Naresh, and Anasuya Bharadwaj in supporting parts. Chitti Babu (Ram Charan) is a quick-tempered young man with a hearing impairment, who resides in the fictional village of Rangasthalam. Chitti Babu is in love with Ramalakshmi (Prabhu), a farmer who is initially unaware of his hearing impairment. Chitti Babu's brother, Kumar Babu (Aadhi Pinisetty), is the polar opposite of his brother. A family tragedy puts Chitti Babu on the path of vengeance, but will his love survive his rage?

Mersal

This Tamil-language action thriller film follows Maaran, a doctor who is falsely convicted of murdering his colleague, Dr Arjun Zachariah. He soon realises that the real criminal is a lookalike out to expose medical industry corruption. Prabhu plays Maaran's fiancée, Tara, a media reporter who helps him investigate the case. Southern superstar Vijay was seen in a triple role in this film- as twin brothers and their father.

U Turn

Samantha Ruth Prabhu

The mystery thriller features Rachana (Prabhu), a journalism intern who investigates traffic offences on an overpass where many automobiles remove a divider manually to make a U-Turn. Rachana is arrested and accused of murder by the police in the middle of the night before she even realises it. Officer Nayak (Pinisetty) believes she is innocent and listens to her version of the tale, despite the fact that the entire police force suspects her. As they examine the case, they come across a peculiar series of strange killings among those who had made the U-turn on the flyover.

Jaanu

In this Telugu romance drama film starring Sharwanand and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, a group of former classmates from a 2004 batch class reunite fifteen years after passing out from school. Ram and Janu, two former classmates who had feelings for each other in the past, have a chance to reconnect at the reunion. The catch is- while Prabhu's Janu has moved ahead in life, Ram cannot get over his feelings for her.

Super Deluxe

The characters in each of the four storylines in this anthology are put to the final test in the most unexpected of ways. In one scenario, Vembu (Samantha) and Mukil (Faasil), a married couple, must dispose the dead body of a former lover. Meanwhile, Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi), a transgender woman who has returned to her family, tries to mend the bridge with her estranged family. In the third story, Arputham (Mysskin), who has survived the tsunami and discovered a new God, and Leela (Ramya Krishnan), a former porn star, must reunite to save the life of their wounded son. What happens when paths of all these characters cross?