Cinema should entertain without making anyone feel disrespected
In the first week of June 2026, the Indian sports film Peddi crossed three hundred crore rupees worldwide, marking a significant commercial achievement for stars Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor. Yet the celebration was shadowed by a growing chorus of voices questioning how the film depicted its female lead — through exploitative camera work and a non-consensual scene — prompting a public apology and promised edits from the director. The episode sits within a longer, unresolved conversation in Indian cinema about who gets to tell stories, whose comfort is prioritized in the making of them, and whether box office success can be separated from the values a film quietly endorses.
- Peddi's three-hundred-crore milestone arrived alongside a wave of criticism that refused to be drowned out by the numbers.
- Viewers and critics identified specific scenes — a non-consensual kiss and objectifying camera angles — that turned a commercial triumph into a public reckoning.
- Director Buchi Babu Sana stepped forward on social media to apologize, insisting disrespect was never the intention and promising to cut the offending scenes from theatrical prints.
- The generational star power of Charan and Kapoor, whose parents Chiranjeevi and Sridevi once shared screens together, had drawn audiences in — making the controversy all the more visible.
- The film continues to perform strongly across more than twelve thousand shows, but the question of why those scenes survived into the final cut remains pointedly unanswered.
Peddi opened with the kind of momentum that fills studio boardrooms with relief — over fifty crore rupees in its first weekend across thousands of screens, driven by the first-ever pairing of Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor. By day six, the worldwide gross had crossed three hundred crore rupees, a milestone that would ordinarily define the film's legacy entirely.
But the numbers could not contain the conversation. Audiences and critics quickly raised alarms about how Kapoor's character, Achiyamma, was treated on screen — exploitative camera angles and a scene depicting a non-consensual kiss drew sustained criticism across social media and film circles. The complaints were neither fringe nor fleeting.
Director Buchi Babu Sana responded publicly, acknowledging the feedback and issuing an apology on X. He stated that cinema should never leave audiences feeling disrespected, that objectification was never his intention, and that the production team would edit the problematic scenes from theatrical prints going forward.
The casting itself carried a particular emotional weight: Charan and Kapoor are the children of Chiranjeevi and the late Sridevi, two icons who had worked together a generation earlier. That echo gave the film a warmth that made the controversy feel more jarring by contrast.
What the episode leaves behind is a question the box office cannot answer: if the filmmakers heard the objections clearly enough to promise edits after release, what does it mean that those scenes were approved and screened in the first place? Commercial success and genuine accountability, it turns out, are not the same destination.
Peddi arrived in theaters with the kind of opening that makes studio executives smile: fifty-one crore rupees across more than twelve thousand screens in its first weekend. Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor, two major names from Indian cinema, were sharing screen time for the first time, and audiences showed up. By day six, the film had crossed three hundred crore rupees worldwide—a commercial milestone that would normally dominate the conversation entirely.
But the numbers tell only half the story. Within days of release, the film became the subject of sharp criticism over how it portrayed Kapoor's character, Achiyamma. Viewers flagged specific camera angles they found exploitative and a scene depicting a non-consensual kiss. The complaints were not marginal—they accumulated across social media and film criticism circles, raising questions about what the film was doing with its female lead and why those choices had made it to the final cut.
Director Buchi Babu Sana, who wrote and directed the film, responded publicly. On X, he acknowledged the feedback and issued an apology, stating that cinema should entertain and inspire without making audiences uncomfortable or disrespected. He wrote that he had always held women in high regard and that objectifying or disrespecting any character was never the intention. If portions of the film had been perceived that way, he said, the production team took those concerns seriously and would actively edit out the problematic scenes in theaters going forward.
The film itself is a sports action vehicle built around Charan's star power, with an ensemble that includes Shiva Rajkumar, Divyendu Sharma, and Jagapathi Babu. The pairing of Charan and Kapoor carried particular resonance: their parents, Chiranjeevi and the late Sridevi, had worked together in multiple films decades earlier. That generational echo added texture to the casting and fueled audience interest.
By day six, Peddi had collected 9.65 crore rupees domestically, bringing India's gross total to 213.23 crore and net collections to 179.35 crore. Overseas markets contributed another crore on that single day, pushing the international gross to 48 crore. The makers announced a worldwide gross of 332.1 crore in six days—a figure that placed the film firmly at the top of the box office.
What remains unresolved is the tension between commercial success and the substance of the criticism. A film can be both a financial triumph and a work that audiences found troubling in its treatment of women. The promise to edit controversial scenes suggests the filmmakers heard the objections, but it also raises a question that lingers: why those scenes existed in the final cut released to theaters in the first place, and what that says about the decision-making that shaped the film before it reached audiences.
Citações Notáveis
Cinema should entertain, inspire, and connect with audiences. It should never make anyone feel uncomfortable or disrespected.— Director Buchi Babu Sana
If any part of the film has been perceived as objectifying or disrespectful, we respect those sentiments, understand the concerns, and sincerely apologize.— Director Buchi Babu Sana
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
A film crosses three hundred crore rupees and simultaneously faces accusations of objectification. How do those two things coexist?
They coexist because box office success and artistic choices are separate things. A film can draw crowds and still contain scenes that trouble viewers. The opening numbers don't validate the content.
But the director apologized. Does that resolve it?
An apology is a statement of intent, not a solution. The scenes still exist in the version people paid to see. Editing them out later is damage control, not prevention.
Why would a filmmaker include those scenes if they knew they'd cause this reaction?
That's the harder question. Either they didn't anticipate the reaction, or they thought the commercial appeal outweighed the risk. Both possibilities are worth sitting with.
Does the fact that Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor are both major stars change how we should read this?
It complicates it. Both actors have agency and choice. But the character of Achiyamma, as written and shot, was still subjected to specific treatment that viewers found disrespectful. Star power doesn't erase that.
What happens next?
The edited version plays in theaters. Audiences decide whether the changes matter. And the industry watches whether this becomes a pattern or a moment.