Noted movie actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s father Joseph Prabhu passed away on Friday.
'Kushi' star Samantha took to Instagram to share an emotional tribute to her late father. “Until we meet again, Dad,” the actor jotted alongside a broken heart emoji. The actor was close to her family but had opened up about her mixed relationship with her father.
Joseph, a Telugu Anglo-Indian, was a central figure in Ruth Prabhu’s early life. The reason for his passing was not immediately known.
Samantha, 37, in an interview, had spoken about her childhood with Joseph and her mother Ninette Prabhu. Talking about her father, 'The Family Man' actor had said that he was like most Indian parents.
"All my life growing up, I had to fight for validation. My father was kind of like… I think most Indian parents are like that. They think they’re protecting you… He actually told me, ‘You’re not that smart. This is just the standard of Indian education. That’s why even you can get a first rank.’ When you say that to a child, I really believed for the longest time that I’m not smart and not good enough," Hindustan Times quoted Samantha as saying.
According to the actor, the success of her debut film 'Ye Maaya Chesave' and all the praises coming her way was suddenly a hard pill to swallow as she had internalised her father's words about her caliber. “I’m used to fighting for validation. Suddenly, all these praises were being showered on me, and I didn’t know how to accept it,” she had reportedly said.
After Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Naga Chaitanya decided to end their marriage, Joseph Prabhu took to Facebook to share wedding pictures of the actor couple to reflect on the past. He mentioned that it took him a long time to come to terms with their split and expressed his hope to begin a new chapter in his life.