Raj Nidimoru: ‘Maa Inti Bangaaram earned me greater appreciation than Stree, Family Man’

3 min readHyderabadJun 25, 2026 03:39 PM IST

Raj Nidimoru and Samantha Ruth Prabhu at the Maa Inti Bangaaram success meet.

Raj Nidimoru, the filmmaker who has delivered several hits with his partner Krishna DK, remarked that none of those projects prepared him for the kind of response Maa Inti Bangaaram has received. Speaking at the film’s success meet on Wednesday, Nidimoru said the film, which stars his wife, actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, had reached audiences in a way his more widely seen work had not.

“Maa Inti Bangaaram earned me wider and greater appreciation than Stree and The Family Man. This movie reached every household, across every district,” the filmmaker said, referring to two of his best known projects, Stree (2018) and the Amazon Prime Video series The Family Man, both made with his longtime collaborator Krishna DK under their Raj & DK banner.

He went on to describe the uncertainty that comes with every new film, regardless of past success. “For me, making every film is a risk, because we create the stories and produce the films ourselves. We were genuinely scared about things like the OTT deal,” he said.

Talking about how Maa Inti Bangaaram was shaped around its lead actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, he added, “When we were designing the movie, we wanted to use her skill set to elevate the film, but we had budget constraints and a tight schedule. There was also a risk, because people were saying so many things about her at the time.”

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Raj Nidimoru also spoke about the process of getting Samantha on board for a film he had written with her specifically in mind, describing himself as the one pushing for the project to happen. “I was the one pushing her to make this film, and once she heard the story, she got excited about it,” he said, adding that the project did not have the backing of his industry connections outside the south. “I didn’t get any leverage from Bollywood for this. Samantha never wanted to make more films, but I asked her to do one more,” he said.

Asked whether he planned to continue making solo projects without Krishna DK, his usual creative partner, Raj Nidimoru said he had not given it serious thought yet. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. This was supposed to be a one time thing I did for Samantha. But DK and I will continue working together, because we have so much on our plate right now,” he said.

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Maa Inti Bangaaram, directed by BV Nandini Reddy, has crossed Rs 50 crore at the worldwide box office since its release, and continues to draw new audiences.