Actor Vijay Deverakonda revealed that when Samantha Ruth Prabhu was diagnosed with myositis, she was fighting many battles and stopped talking and meeting the people close to her. Speaking at a promotional event for his upcoming Telugu film ‘Kushi,’ he said he got to know about Sam’s health in July while promoting a different film.
He added that he tried to explain to her that they were actors and storytellers. Vijay said, “I told Sam that we are actors and that we are storytellers. I felt we did not have to talk about our struggles in the open. After a point, Samantha felt it was her responsibility to talk about her health. She stopped talking to us and she stopped seeing all of us. She was extremely unwell. She fought so many battles. At that point, she decided to share it with everyone, just to tell people that there's hope.”
He added that he wanted to see Sam smile, adding that she had struggled a lot for ‘Kushi.’ Vijay said, “We started this film in April 2022 with a smile on our faces. We had completed 60 per cent. Only 30-35 per cent shooting was pending. By July, Sam's health condition deteriorated. She said that her health wasn't good. Shiva and I were like ‘You look beautiful. What problem do you have?' We took it lightly. Later, we understood her plight.”
Samantha was diagnosed with the auto-immune condition myositis in 2022. Written and directed by Shiva Nirvana and produced by Mythri Movie Makers, ‘Kushi’ is all set to hit the theatres on September 1 in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.
Samantha completed her work on ‘Kushi,’ and her international project - the Indian chapter of Prime Video's ‘Citadel' earlier this year. After completing all her pending projects, Samantha is now on a break for at least a year. She is expected to get her treatment in the USA.