It is impossible to imagine the smash hit Pushpa song Oo Antava without Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Allu Arjun, right? However, there was a time when the actress was advised by her friends, family and well-wishers not to be a part of the dance number. Samantha, during a recent interview with Miss Malini, revealed that the song came out just after her and Naga Chaitanya's separation in 2021 and her well-wishers did not want her to feature in the song. "While I was offered Oo Antava, I was in the middle of all of the separation. The announcement came and every friend of mine every well-wisher, and my family were like 'you sit at home, you will not do an item song now just after you announced a separation and you will say no to this'," Samantha told Miss Malini.
The actress added that even her friends, who had encouraged her to be a part of a project like Super Deluxe, were not very sure if she should be featuring in a dance number right after her divorce. "Even my friends who usually encourage me and say go for it do Super Deluxe, go challenge yourself, even they said no, do not do an item. So it's like okay I'm doing it because I just thought that why should I hide? I mean I did not do anything wrong why should I hide? I was not going to go into hiding and wait for all of the trolling and abuse to go away and then slowly creep back in like some someone who had committed a crime. I was not going to do that. I gave my marriage 100 it did not work out but I was not going to beat myself up and feel guilty for something that I didn't do," Miss Malini quoted Samantha as saying.
Last year, when Samantha appeared on Karan Johar's chat show Koffee With Karan 7, she was asked by the host if Oo Antava was meant to be a "rebellious or a strategic move," Samantha said this, "I loved the song. It was a satire on the male gaze. I know I got a lot of criticism about pandering to the male gaze while making a satire on the male gaze. My logic was who else can satire a male gaze except for the nautch girl I was playing in the song or an actor who has a wide experience or wide range of the male gaze? Only a nautch girl or me can satire the male gaze."