Peddi was expected to dominate headlines for its box office numbers, it has instead ignited a raging storm of public fury. The target of this intense audience backlash is director Buchi Babu Sana, who is facing widespread condemnation for the severe sexual objectification and degrading portrayal of the female lead, Achiyamma (played by Janhvi Kapoor).
Audiences walking out of theaters have flooded social media to express absolute disgust, with many pointing out that the movie treats Janhvi’s character as nothing more than a visual object. Furious netizens are calling out specific scenes where the camera takes an explicitly crude shift, panning to tight close-ups of her chest and waist even while the male protagonist is supposedly complimenting her face. The writing has been heavily slammed as “vulgar,” “crass,” and “B-grade,” with hundreds of viewers comparing her presentation to softcore adult content found on the Ullu web series.
Beyond the visual objectification, the film is facing severe heat for its highly problematic treatment of consent. In the movie, Ram Charan’s character explicitly states his desire to touch Achiyamma without her permission and later kisses her without her consent during a power cut. Shockingly, instead of addressing the violation, the film overlays romantic music to force the audience into cheering for the hero’s actions, while another character tells a crying Achiyamma to just stay silent for the sake of a political career. Netizens have fiercely called out the makers for passing off blatant assault as “romance” and “heroism”.
The controversy deepened significantly when Janhvi Kapoor herself silently validated the audience’s outrage. Sharp-eyed netizens noticed that the actress officially “liked” a viral social media post by a film community titled “Peddi: the most expensive disrespect ever paid to a leading woman in Indian cinema”. The post directly accused Buchi Babu Sana of framing the denial of human identity as a systemic evil while completely denying his female lead that very same humanity.
