Peddi hit theaters on June 4 and faced a lot of backlash due to the way Janhvi Kapoor’s character Achiyyamma was portrayed. The actress’s portrayal in a film leads to criticism on social media. The film sees Jhanvi opposite Ram Charan. Much criticism focuses on the character’s introductory scene, in which the camera lingers on various parts of her body before eventually revealing her face.
Critics have argued that the sequence prioritizes the male gaze and visual appeal over meaningful character establishment.Amid this backlash, an old clip of Ratna Pathak Shah has gone viral. The ‘Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’ actress said that actresses have the option to accept or reject roles that are considered objectified. She had said in this old conversation with News18, “Everyone who decides to act in a film, every woman, I’m sorry to be a judge but every woman who decides to act in a film like Dabangg where she becomes a complete object of lust and more or less, nothing else, these women should also stand up and say ‘no, I don’t feel like I am doing a role like that’.
” Pathak also admitted that not all women in the industry have the same financial security or freedom to turn down such opportunities. Referring to the privileges enjoyed by some actors, she added: “Especially since I have a mother and father to fund this, at least at this time I wouldn’t do it. Silk Smitha didn’t have the opportunity to say that. Her family relied on her to do what she had to do. My family doesn’t, so why shouldn’t I stand up?”The panel discussion also included actors Vidya Balan,
Bhumi Pednekar
Swara Bhasker and Zaira Wasim. The conversation revolved around gender representation in cinema, the pressures faced by female actors and the impact of films on societal attitudes.
During the same discussion, Bhumi Pednekar stressed the importance of accountability in storytelling and revealed that she turned down many projects because she wasn’t comfortable with the way female characters were written. She said: “We need to become more responsible. I completely agree considering the kind of impact we have on people, on the public, we need to know because every time you kick a girl’s ass, there will be 10 boys in a small village in India doing the same thing and thinking it’s okay.”
“Meanwhile, ‘Peddi’ has also sparked talks about its romantic subplot. Some viewers have raised concerns about scenes that they believe blur the boundaries of consent, arguing that behavior framed as romantic could be interpreted as normalizing assertiveness in the face of a woman’s objections rather than respecting her autonomy and choices.
