A younger ardent fan of South Indian actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu has constructed a temple for her and positioned her idol in it, at his home at Alapadu village of Tsunduru mandal in Bapatla district of Andhra Pradesh on Friday, coinciding with her birthday. The village is about 10 km from Tenali and round 40 km from Guntur.
Twenty-nine-year-old Sandeep from Tenali, a automotive driver, spent a serious a part of his earnings on development of the temple. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Sandeep mentioned he was impressed by the nice work taken up by the actor by way of Pratyusha Support, a charity that sponsors free medical companies for kids with congenital coronary heart ailments.
From admiration to devotion
Speaking about his ‘‘admiration-to-devotion’‘ story, Mr. Sandeep said initially he liked Samantha as a good actor and started following her over a decade ago. “I almost became her devotee after I came to know that she has been donating her hard-earned money to help children with congenital heart diseases,” he said, adding “Samantha comes from a middle class family, and after achieving fame and money with hard work, she started giving it back to society and became a role model for many. I decided that she deserves to be worshipped in a temple and constructed one for her,” he said.
The temple project, he says, got delayed due to personal and financial problems. “My father succumbed to a kidney disease. I constructed my house by taking loans and I also incurred huge expenditure for my marriage. However, I managed to complete the temple project now,” Mr. Sandeep said.
Referring to people’s response to his resolution, he says his kin, the village residents and others initially thought it was a silly resolution. “Initially, my wife was also reluctant, as she was worried about what the villagers would say. But, after I explained to her the reason behind my decision, my wife, family members, relatives and almost all others were convinced and supported me,” he says.
“We all love Samantha as an actor. Our admiration for her grew further after seeing her charity work for the needy children” says Mr. Sandeep’s spouse, Deepti.
The couple’s elder son opened the temple within the presence of a giant gathering of village residents. The inauguration was adopted by celebration of Samantha’s birthday by providing meals, organising music programmes and different actions.
Idol sculpted in 15 days
Sri Ram Akkala, the sculptor from Tenali who carved the idol, mentioned that it took him greater than 15 days to finish the idol. “We used fibre and other material to make the idol,” he mentioned, informing that after Khushboo, a temple has been constructed for Samantha now. She might be the primary actor in Andhra Pradesh to have this honour, he mentioned.
Mr. Sandeep tried in useless to satisfy Samantha as soon as in Hyderabad and he’s hopeful that sooner or later he would have the ability to meet her straight. “Let me believe that miracles do happen and my Goddess Samantha will come to my house and bless me,” he says.
Mr. Sandeep has provided prayers at many well-known temples for the wholesome lifetime of Samantha.
