It was difficult for Samantha Ruth Prabhu to shoot for Raj & DK’s spy-thriller series Citadel: Honey Bunny as she was diagnosed with the medical condition of Myositis. She had given up on doing the role but then got motivated by others to take it up.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Samantha said that she had always made decisions for herself in her life and didn’t have any mentors whom she could trust. And with her condition, she found it impossible to get out of the house. “There is no way I could be in front of the camera. I was absolutely convinced,” she said.
It was the Citadel team that pushed her to take it up. She said, “I think that what they were able to do to get me to actually trust and put myself in someone else’s hands has actually never been done before in 37 years of my life.” She added that she was grateful to the team for believing in her and not giving up on her. “If it wasn’t for them, it would have taken much longer for me to get healthier again and I wouldn’t have had anything to fight back for or to come back up. This was enough motivation,” she said.
In the same conversation, her co-star Varun Dhawan shared how she struggled to work on set. “I was so worried because I remember one day when we were shooting, she just shut her eyes and said, ‘It’s just one of those days’. We kept shooting for about two hours and after a short while an oxygen tank is coming and she is taking oxygen on the side,” he said.
He added, “She didn’t have to do this. She could have taken the day off. She was literally taking oxygen on set, and that is commitment.”
Varun talked of another instance when Samantha collapsed during a shoot sequence in Serbia when she had to run behind him. “So, I have run past the camera and she is still in the frame and she just collapsed. I caught her and I went to Raj and said, ‘Pack up’, and they were like, ‘Calm down. You go and stand over there. Don’t worry, she will be fine.’ I just didn’t know what to do.”
Varun added, “That’s the only day when I saw her break down. And I was just like, I just didn’t know who to show my anger to, because I know how caring and supporting Raj and DK have been. And they were feeling as bad, maybe more. It was just her determination and will to march on, just looking at her, gave me so much power and positivity.”
Samantha was diagnosed with the condition in 2022. It’s a rare disorder that makes the muscles weak, causing intense inflammation.
