Samantha Ruth Prabhu made heads turn when she attended the Elle Sustainability Awards on Thursday evening. Her monochrome, beaded bodice gown caught everyone’s attention in more ways than one. You’ll be shocked to know that it’s the same white gown she wore for her fairytale wedding to Naga Chaitanya in 2017. 

Repurposing a ‘beloved’ gown

Designer Kresha Bajaj, who also designed Samantha’s wedding gown, took to Instagram to share a reel of the making of the gown. She showed how they hand-sewed floral and crystal detailing onto her white gown in 2016, doing the same for her years later for the awards night after dying it all black and changing the silhouette.

While the designer only wrote, “We loved working with Samantha, our muse, to help her create a new memory, and tell another story. Beauty is forever. And it can take on a new form every day,” many recognised that it was her wedding gown that was repurposed. The video she shared details how it was all done.

Samantha, who won a sustainability award, also shared monochrome pictures of her in the gown, writing, “We cannot ignore sustainability anymore. We’re past that stage when it was a choice. It’s now a necessity for the longevity of our planet that we call home. The dress I am wearing today is a beloved gown that has been repurposed for this occasion by the most talented @kreshabajajofficial.”

She added, “While that might sound insignificant… entitled even… to many… I assure you that repurposing my old clothes is only one of many steps I am consciously taking to alter my habits and make my lifestyle more sustainable. And every little gesture, every little decisive action, is important. It all adds up. I urge myself and all of you that have goodwill for me in your hearts to make those little efforts.”

Samantha’s fairytale wedding

Samantha married her Ye Maaya Chesave co-star Naga Chaitanya on October 6, 2017, in Goa. The couple had a three-day wedding complete with sangeet and mehendi, a Christian ceremony and a Hindu ceremony to make it official. A few days before their anniversary in 2021, the couple announced in an Instagram post that they were separated, with their divorce coming through soon after.

Samantha and Chaitanya have both since spoke about their marriage and divorce, with the former telling Harper’s Bazaar, “When I hit an all-time low of, well, a failed marriage, and my health and work were getting affected, it was like a triple whammy; boom, boom, boom. You know, people go down for far less than what I endured for the last two years or so.”

Upcoming work

Samantha will soon be seen in Raj & DK’s web series Citadel: Honey Bunny with Varun Dhawan as her co-star. The series is the Indian edition of the US series Citadel, which starred Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden.

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