Janhvi Kapoor on Peddi Row: ‘It Was a Violating Experience’ — Actor Owns Her Silence on Koffee With Karan 9

Janhvi Kapoor has finally addressed the controversy around her role in Peddi, and she did not soften a word of it. Appearing on Koffee With Karan Season 9 alongside Varun Dhawan, the actor spoke about the backlash that followed the Telugu film’s June release, describing her portrayal as extreme objectification and the experience itself as violating.

“That shame I will always carry with me,” Kapoor said, when host Karan Johar raised the issue. “Could I have done more? Could I have been more vigilant? 100 per cent yes. Was it problematic, was it extreme objectification? Did it even propagate sexual assault narratively? Yes. But the only thing I can do is ensure that it doesn’t happen again.” She added: “It was a violating experience in a way.”

Peddi, directed by Buchi Babu Sana and starring Ram Charan in the title role, features Kapoor as Achiyamma, the female lead. Soon after its June release, viewers criticised the way Achiyamma was presented: sequences that lingered on her body rather than establishing her character, and a scene in which Peddi kisses her during a power cut without her consent. Director Buchi Babu later apologised, saying the team never intended to disrespect female characters, and promised changes to the portions in question.

Kapoor was equally unsparing about her own role. She said she had tried to make scenes less problematic as she learned how they were being handled, but should have challenged those decisions forcefully. She also explained a practical problem actors face: in South Indian cinema, she said, scripts are very rarely bound, and camera angles are rarely visible to the cast beforehand, leaving actors to rely on the director’s instructions while scenes are being shot. Even so, she said, she should have used her position to push back. “I do come from a place of privilege. I should have taken advantage of that because I am going to get the flak for being privileged anyway,” she said.

Here is the Filmverse take: what makes this moment land is not the apology — it is the accountability. Lead actors rarely go on record against their own films, and rarer still do they name the structural problem: that the people most affected by a shot often see it last. Kapoor’s answer turns a months-old argument about one film into a practical question for every set — who gets to see the script, the shot list and the final cut before the camera rolls. Read about Kapoor’s latest shoot here: https://filmverse.in/janhvi-kapoor-sreeleela-siddharth-gupta-thriller-shoot-begins/

Sources: Cinema Express, Boldsky