When Samantha Akkineni went into 'dark zone' and broke down on Family Man 2 sets

The trailer of The Family Man 2 which released on social media on Wednesday intensified buzz around Samantha Akkineni's character in the show. Revealing how the character took a toll on Samantha's psyche, the makers of the show, Raj and DK have shared that the actor went into the dark zone and also ended up breaking down on the sets.

Hyderabad: South diva Samantha Akkineni is all set to mark her digital debut as antagonist in the second season of popular web series The Family Man. The actor intensely prepared for the role which will also mark her foray into the Hindi market.

Samantha Akkineni to play antagonist in The Family Man 2

As the show's premiere date is approaching close, the team of The Family Man 2 has set out on a promotional spree. In one of such promotional interviews, Samantha was asked what intrigued her to play the negative character in the show to which she replied, "The last two years or so I have made a conscious decision to not sign anything unless I know that two to three days before the shoot I am not going to able to sleep. I should have sleepless nights."

Samantha as Raji in The Family Man 2

The actor further added that when Raj and DK offered The Family Man 2 to her she knew she is not "going to be sleeping for a while". The actor said, "Especially when your role is loosely inspired by real events, it was the challenge that I was looking for and I hope I did justice to it."

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Talking about her prep for the character, Samantha said she did a lot of homework and she was also "offered real life footage that I took too seriously and delved too deep into it." Chiming in, Raj Nidimoru of Raj & DK duo said, "She completely went into this dark zone." Raj narrated an incident of Samantha watching a very disturbing documentary related to her story in the film and how she was completely absorbed by it. The actor apparently shut herself for three days and watched it over and over again and couldn't take the disturbing images out of her mind.

A still from The Family Man 2

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Raj further said when they were shooting for an intense sequence on the second day of shoot, Samantha was giving the last shot of the sequence and came to have a look at it on the monitor and asked if she got it right. When Raj and DK said they have got what they wanted Samantha suddenly started crying. DK added that Samantha's breaking down on the set was the result of days of bottled-up feelings.

Samantha Akkineni in a still from The Family Man 2

For The Family Man 2, Manoj Bajpayee returns in the starring role along with Priyamani Raj, Sharib Hashmi, Seema Biswas, Darshan Kumar, Sharad Kelkar, Sunny Hinduja and Shreya Dhanwanthary in pivotal roles. The show will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on June 4.