In the newly released series The Family Man 2, Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s portrayal of Raji, a determined Sri Lankan Tamil freedom warrior on a death mission, earned largely good reviews from critics and the general public. A section of the Internet, however, took issue with Samantha’s much darker skin tone throughout the series. The Family Man 2 showrunners Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK said in a recent interview with Film Companion that they adjusted Samantha’s skin tone many shades browner because “her character required that she be fit because she’s a military person.” They also stated that their goal as “responsible filmmakers” was to clarify that the goal was not to convey any concept of beauty.
“When you’re trying to claim that black skin isn’t attractive and light skin is, this entire thing comes up in the context of beauty… First and foremost, this is not that context. This has nothing to do with skin attractiveness. We’re all different colors of brown. Now, the concept is that if each one is a different shade of brown, it’s not about finding a new race to play with (character). It’s also not a race issue,” During the interview, Raj stated.
Raj said during the interview that Raji’s persona would have “no time for caring about self-care.” He said, “Here, we’re attempting to capture Raji’s essence. We want her to be able to talk it, look at it, and be that action girl who can land a punch, someone who is physically fit enough to take on a man twice her size. That is our biggest problem. So, if you look at what she wears, you’ll see that she’s a soldier, a weather-beaten girl, and she doesn’t have time to bother about self-care. Your face will be crimson if you’re a soldier in the Himalayas, that’s the makeup.”
Samantha worked hard for three months to get into the character’s skin, and Raji had to appear a specific way, given her background, and make-up and clothing were just one component of it, according to DK. “She studied martial skills, a dialect, and other things. She mastered a dialect of Tamil that was different from her ordinary Tamil. When you add the notion of hair, makeup, and clothing to the mix, you have a whole character. This is Raji’s character; she has a specific appearance, walks in a certain manner, and is a murderous machine, and that’s all there is to it,” DK contributed to the conversation.
