Samantha Akkineni begins shooting for Gunasekhar’s Shakuntalam

Samantha Akkineni, who was seen recently in The Family Man 2, has joined the sets of upcoming Telugu period drama Shakuntalam.

She took to Instagram to announce that she has resumed shooting for the project in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Tipped to be a big-budget film, the project is being directed by Gunasekhar, who is known for his epic period drama Rudhramadevi with Anushka Shetty.

Last year, speaking at the launch of the movie, Samantha had said that this is her dream project and dream role. She is working with Gunasekhar for the first time.

Samantha Akkineni shared a photo and wrote, "Work progress #Shaakuntalam. (sic)". She also shared a photo of a huge lion statue, hinting at the grand scale of the film.

Meanwhile, Samantha is on the verge of wrapping up the upcoming Tamil romantic comedy Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kadhal, which also stars Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi.

She is thrilled about her upcoming horror film with director Ashwin Saravanan. Acknowledging the project, she recently tweeted: “It’s going to be much more than just a horror film.”

Being produced by Sony Entertainment, the film marks the maiden collaboration of Ashwin Saravanan, best known for helming Maya (2015) and Game Over (2019), with Samantha. The film also stars Prasanna and Prashanth.

Earlier this year, Samantha made her debut as a television host with a celebrity chat show called Sam Jam. She also hosted a few episodes of Telugu Bigg Boss when her father-in-law, veteran actor Nagarjuna, was unavailable due to his shooting schedules.

Last November, when the show was announced, Samantha took to Twitter and wrote: “And you wonder why stars have big egos. Thank you Aha (sic).”