Sameera Reddy on her love affair with Junior NTR: I was forced to leave Telugu cinema [Throwback video]

Actress Sameera Reddy had revealed in an interview he didn't have a love affair with Junior NTR. But she was so fed up with rumours that she decided to move away from the Telugu cinema.

Sameera Reddy was paired with Junior NTR in director Surender Reddy's 2006 Telugu romantic action film Ashok. The young tiger is known for maintaining distance from his heroines. But after the actress started moving closely with him, it was speculated that the two were dating each other. The rumours about their love affairs had created a lot of buzz until the release of their film.

Five years later, Sameera Reddy opened up on the rumours about her relationship with Junior NTR and said, "The truth is that I'm a very friendly and straightforward girl. I'll not try to hide anything. The truth was that it was brown out of proportion because he is really wonderful co-star to work with. He taught me a lot. When I came to Telugu cinema, being a Telugu Reddy girl, I didn't know anything."

Talking about Junior NTR's nature, Sameera Reddy added, "He really took the time and I had heard from many that he is a very aloof boy. He doesn't talk to anybody. He won't even talk to you after the shot. But we got along and became friends. However, that friendship was blown out of proportion."

Her family was worried over the speculations about Sameera dating Jr NTR. The actress told, "It became such big deal that it was too much being spoken and my family got upset. As much as I been bold actress in so many films, my father is still Andhra Reddy man at the end of the day and I have to answer to him. Somewhere he got questioned a lot by his family."

Sameera added, "When he kept asking me and I decided to move away from Telugu cinema because there was too much talk. Is he is going to marry her? or You have to marry him? Fans were saying a lot of things. People were only talking about us. They were not talking about my movies. They weren't talking about what I am capable of. The focus went from Sameera Reddy to Sameera NTR."

Talking about her journey in Kollywood, Sameera said, "When Vaaranam Aayiram came out, Tamil cinema opened up for me. It was easy over there because I was just recreating a new me over there. When I was trying to get a new film in Telugu, it was coming back to the same scandal or whatever you call. I was young and I had to answer to my family. That time, I decided to focus on Tamil cinema because I had to create my own identity. Then that's what happened. When Vaaranam Aayiram became a big hit, I did a film each with Ajith and Vishal and I started working with Gautham Menon."

Sameera admitted that she was traumatised by the rumors. She said, "I have never faced something like that because I have been a straight-up girl. So I was very surprised by it. I think Andhra community is such that they stuck on one thing. For me, I was upset because I am a good actress and dance. I wanted to be known as that. I didn't want to be known as Jr NTR's love interest. I think somewhere it hurt him also because I could see that even he was being targeted."

When asked whether she broke up her friendship with Jr NTR, Sameera said, "I just distanced myself and I stopped talking to him after the movie Ashok. I realised that was the only way we could stop it. I known lot of people and I can just pick up my phone and talk to Gautham Menon, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor or anybody that I have worked with. It had created so much drama that decided to stop it."