Samantha Akkineni wins the Best Performance Female (series) at IIFM for 'Family man 2'

South star Samantha Akkineni won millions of hearts with her Hindi and digital debut, The Family Man 2. The actor played the role of Raji in this Raj and DK web series and gained lauds for bringing the character to life. The actor recently won the Best Performance Female (series) award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. The actor thanked the web series creators for seeing beyond her cute girl image and allowing her to play an intense role.

Samantha Akkineni wins Best Performance Female (series) award at IIFM

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne took place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Best Performance Female (series) category, Samantha Akkineni competed Neena Gupta, Prajakta Koli, Rasika Dugal, Shweta Tripathi and Shahana Goswami. Today, on August 20, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar announced the winners during the online event and congratulated Samantha Akkineni for bagging the award. Samantha Akkineni then thanked the film festival and said, "I wish that I was able to do this in person. Just listening to the immense talent before me is an award by itself. It is truly an honour."

Taking to Instagram, Samantha Akkineni thanked Raj and DK for giving her the role of Raji. She shared how the makers gave her an opportunity to perform beyond the cute girl image. She wrote, "Thankyou @iffmelbourne ❤️ I am so so grateful 🙏🙏 .. Thankyouuu @rajanddk for being able to see beyond the 'cute girl’ image that many couldn’t look past .. as an actor I dreamed of being given such an opportunity.. the chance to play a layered and intense role. #Raji forced me to dig deep .. and I am beyond happy today to receive a certificate of approval for the performance 💃 💃💃💃." Several celebrities from the industry congratulated the actor on the award. Dulquer Salmaan wrote, "Congrats Sam !!! So well deserved !! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻" in the comment section.

The Family Man Season 2 had a huge viewership across the country. The show's lead actor Manoj Bajpayee also received the award under Best Performance Male (series) at the Indian Film Festival. He took to his Instagram handle to thank the film festival. 

IMAGE: SAMANTHA AKKINENI'S INSTAGRAM