'I am very sorry for hurting anyone's sentiments'

Samantha Akkineni reacted to the controversy surrounding her show, 'The Family Man 2', where she played the role of a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel. While she received glowing praise for her performance, the Tamil Nadu government had earlier slammed the makers for portraying the Tamil Eelam in a negative light and urged the Centre to ban the show.

Tamil Nadu's IT Minister T Mano Thangaraj had written a letter ahead of Family Man 2's release which read that the series 'not only hurt the sentiments of Eelam Tamils but also the feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu'.

In an interview with a news agency, Samantha apologised for hurting people's sentiments, without addressing the topic directly.

"I allow people to have their own opinions. If they decided to stay with that opinion, I am very sorry for hurting anyone's sentiments. I sincerely apologise as it was not something I intended on doing at all. I did not mean to hurt anyone. So, if I did, I am extremely sorry. I am glad that, though, once the show did release, a lot of the noise stopped. I guess some saw that it was not so bad after all. For the people who did not and continue to hold resentment, I sincerely apologise," said the actor.

Samantha played the role of the antagonist Raji in the second season of the 'Amazon Prime Video' series, which featured Manoj Bajpayee, Sharib Hashmi, Sharad Kelkar and Priyamani. While the first season focused on the investigation of a potential terror attack, the second showed the terror attack by a rebel ground.

The show recently bagged various awards.