He intends to touch Achiyyamma without her consent.
Director Buchi Babu Sana has responded to the widespread criticism surrounding the portrayal of Janhvi Kapoor’s character in his film Peddi.
In an interview, the filmmaker admitted he was taken aback by the intensity and nature of the backlash following the film’s release.
He acknowledged that certain portions of the film had failed to land as he had intended and that audiences had received them very differently from what he expected.
Buchi said: “I had not anticipated that the scenes would be perceived so negatively by audiences.”
He also confirmed that the criticism had prompted a meaningful period of self-reflection about how he approaches the writing of female characters in his work.
“The idea was to showcase a playful romance story between Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor.
“However, we’ll be more careful and make better representations.”
The backlash was directed primarily at the film’s romance track involving Kapoor’s character, Achiyyamma, which many viewers found deeply troubling in its framing.
Peddi is a sports drama set in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh, built around nameless villages and their ongoing fight for identity and recognition.
Ram Charan plays Peddi, a cricketer-for-hire from one of these unnamed settlements, and his journey forms the powerful emotional core of the film.
By most accounts, the film’s second half delivers strongly on its central ambitions, but the first half drew heavy and sustained criticism from a wide audience.
The objections were specific and serious, centring on how Achiyyamma is introduced and how the relationship between the two leads is developed on screen.
Her character’s introduction alone drew immediate concern, with the camera lingering on her body for several minutes before her face is even shown to the audience.
The courtship that follows was described by viewers as deeply alarming in the behaviour it presents and the values it appears to normalise without consequence.
The hero is shown telling his friends that he intends to touch Achiyyamma without her consent.
Following this, he enters her personal space and proceeds to do exactly that.
When she slaps him in response to the unwanted contact, he tells her that the touch was simply his way of expressing love for her.
The arc then concludes with Achiyyamma kissing him, and at no point does the narrative hold anyone accountable for what has taken place.
Viewers argued that what was framed as a playful and innocent romance was in practice a scene-by-scene normalisation of harassment and non-consent.
The film appeared to present a woman’s objection not as a legitimate boundary to be respected but as an obstacle to be overcome by persistence.
One film review put it directly:
“Nearly every scene featuring her seems designed around objectification rather than character development.”
That assessment captured what a significant portion of the audience and critical community had been expressing since the film’s release.
The debate around Peddi has become one of the more substantial conversations about representation and consent in Telugu cinema in recent times.
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