FORM SEPT - OCT 2026 | VOL.1 ISSUE 1 samantha ruth prabhuSUPPORTING TEXT FOR THE COVER STORY GOES HERE
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So many things can go wrong during your first month of training at the gym. You could easily lift seven-kilogram dumbbels off the rack and almost meet God while lowering them during a chest press. You could get into a one-sided running contest with a guy before realising he’s probably had years of practice and you’re mortifyingly close to the edge of the treadmill. Or, in a moment of misplaced self-confidence, you could sign up for a workout class with Samantha Ruth Prabhu. When I arrive for our session at Breathe Studio in Khar, I expect I will have some time to get my bearings—by which I mean eliminating any chance of death-by- equipment and coaxing the trainer into going easy on me. But Samantha is already on the mat with head coach Paridhi Doshi, waving me over to join them. I wave back, double-knot my shoelaces and drop a pin to my husband on WhatsApp with the accompanying text saying: “If you don’t hear from me in two hours, look for me in the nearest hospital.”s We start with squats—five-kilogram dumbbells for me, a barbell stacked with plates I’m too afraid to even look at for Samantha. The studio has been asked to turn the music off so I can speak with the actor without having to scream, but between fighting for breath between reps and the clicking sound my knees make every time I move, there’s enough audio disturbance. It’s only when we’re doing wall sits later that I recover enough to really look at Samantha: taut calves, firm stomach, enviable shoulder blades, a face that looks like it is drenched in dew rather than soaked in sweat like mine. “How has the new year started for you?” I blurt out when she catches me staring. “The horoscope writer at Vogue,” I explain, “told me that Taureans will have one of the most transformative years of their lives. Has that been the case for you?” The 38-year-old star’s answer seems to emerge from post-squat clarity. “The past few years have been incredibly- transformative for me. When you’re in the public eye, there’s always a fear of embarrassing yourself, of being cancelled, of being trolled. You’re constantly trying to guard your status because you’re so scared of losing it. Because when you fall, everyone watches, right? It’s public.” And it has been a very public everything. A very public first wedding to Telugu superstar Naga Chaitanya, followed by a very public divorce and a very public health diagnosis. “When I went through a separation, I closed up completely. I didn’t think it would ever be possible to rely on someone else.” A smile begins to spread across her face, like she’s so glad to have been proven wrong.
“Thankfully, I was vulnerable enough to accept that kind of love and friendship. And I’m a much better person because of the relationship I’m in. Because of the person Raj (Nidimoru) is.” It’s a transformation those close to her can attest to. “I met an old friend a few days ago and she sent me a voice note afterwards saying, ‘This is the first time in a long time that I feel like you’re not struggling to breathe.’ I’m not performing anymore.” Paridhi is shooting daggers at us because we’ve overshot our rest limit and are supposed to be two reps into our next set. Samantha and I, both dyed-in-the-wool millennials, tell her she is too Gen Z to talk or hear about love without feeling embarrassed. She has one word for us both. “Lunges,” she growls. “Leave the 5, pick up the 7.5,” she adds, looking at me stoically and I detect the slightest note of vengeance in her sweet voice. I look to Samantha for help but she, ever the dutiful student, has already started without me. And so it is that we become like two ships passing in the night—me, an inflatable raft in a hurricane, losing my balance with every step I take; Samantha, a sturdy ocean liner already on her way back to the starting point, ready for her next rep. When our paths cross, she sends words of encouragement my way. “You have great flexibility. I struggled with that.” When I collapse on the mat two minutes later, she sits next to me quietly, a silence that neither of us feels compelled to break. Instead, her triceps seem to be doing the talking for her, catching the golden hour at different angles as she breathes in and out. She catches me looking—again—and explains, “I do my own stunts in all my films so I have to be strong. It needs to look believable.” I realise, belatedly, that she has mistaken my appreciation for aversion. Her apprehensions aren’t unfounded. When cricketer Smriti Mandhana wore a halter- neck gown to an event in Bengaluru in December last year, her deltoids were deemed ‘too manly’ by men who incidentally looked like they wouldn’t last five seconds in an arm-wrestling match with a kitten. “When I shoot with brands and often in films, too, they try to cover my arms because they think muscles on a woman aren’t attractive,” Samantha confesses. “Which is why,” she continues, beaming now, “it was so cool that Vogue gave me weights during the shoot and asked me to pump before each shot so my triceps would look well-defined. That’s usually only done for men.” Throughout our conversation, Samantha’s phone has buzzed with calls and messages, every one of which she has courteously ignored. I imagine it’s a busy period for her as a multihyphenate who has several active entrepreneurial hustles and a film on the cusp of release.
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