Manoj Bajpayee meets his nemesis in Samantha Akkineni's Raji, and life
Samantha Akkineni made her Hindi digital debut playing Srikant Tiwari's new adversary Raji in 'The Family Man' Season 2, training at a real garment factory and performing her own action stunts.
"The Family Man" Season 2 premiered on Amazon Prime Video on June 4, 2021, with Manoj Bajpayee reprising his role as intelligence operative Srikant Tiwari opposite a new antagonist, Raji, played by Samantha Akkineni in her Hindi mainstream and digital debut, according to coverage from The News Minute and the Free Press Journal.
The season shifts to Chennai as Tiwari faces the new threat posed by Raji, described by the show's creators as giving "danger... a new face," per The News Minute. Sharad Kelkar, Priyamani and Sharib Hashmi returned from the first season, with Raj and DK again directing and producing.
The Free Press Journal reported that Raji is written as a Sri Lankan Tamilian working in a garment factory who becomes central to a planned assassination plot, and that the role marks a deliberately "deglamorized" turn for Akkineni, built around hardcore action sequences.
How Akkineni prepared for the role
According to the Free Press Journal, Akkineni learned weaving techniques at an actual garment factory, underwent daily physical training, and said she "locked herself in a room for three days and watched multiple documentaries" to understand the character. The outlet reported she performed her own action stunts, including scenes involving firearms, for the first time in her career.
How the show was framed ahead of release
Amazon's Head of India Originals said the new season is "bigger, more complex, and dials up the action," according to The News Minute's coverage, while noting the season's production had continued through pandemic-era challenges. The retrieved coverage does not include post-release critical reviews of the season's reception.
What it signals
Akkineni's casting as a physically demanding, non-glamorous antagonist represented a departure from the roles she was previously known for in Telugu-language cinema, and the promotional emphasis on her hands-on preparation suggests the production treated that shift as a selling point for the season, rather than a minor casting note.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by The News Minute and the Free Press Journal. It restores a story originally published on this site in June 2021; figures are as reported at the time.