Janhvi Kapoor admits ‘extreme objectification’ in Peddi song: ‘The shame I will always carry’

Months after a song from the Telugu film Peddi drew widespread criticism, Janhvi Kapoor has broken her silence on the subject.

Appearing on the latest episode of Koffee With Karan alongside Varun Dhawan, Kapoor told host Karan Johar that she had stayed silent until now partly out of respect for the many people who worked on the film. That silence, she said, was never meant to sidestep responsibility.

“It’s important that I take ownership from my half of…whatever that fiasco was because it weighs heavily on my conscience the sort of negative impact and a narrative like that can have on our society, specific to my gender,” she said. “I think that shame I will always carry with me. Could have I done more? Could have I been more vigilant? Could have I made a bigger scene? A hundred percent, yes.”

She also gave her own verdict on the sequence. When Johar raised the two camps of public reaction, sympathy for her on one side and the question of why she didn’t object on set on the other, Kapoor said she agreed with the critics. In her view the portrayal was problematic, amounted to extreme objectification, and even propagated a sexual-assault narrative.

The more revealing part of the conversation was about process. Kapoor described a working environment where an actor’s ability to object is limited by how little she knows in advance. She said bound scripts are rare in southern productions, and the ones that exist seldom note camera angles. Information about how a scene would be framed reached her gradually, she explained, and she tried to soften the problematic elements as it came in, all while working under the expectation that a professional actor follows the director.

She was careful not to let that context become an excuse. “Having said that I also need to take responsibility for my half of it,” she said.

She then turned to her own position in the industry. “I do come from a place of privilege, I should have taken advantage of that because I am going to get it for being privileged anyway. So, I might as well may have leveraged it.”

Asked directly whether director Buchi Babu Sana had let her down, Kapoor visibly hesitated. She said she was wary of sounding as though she was casting herself as the victim, though she described the experience as violating in some ways. Johar and Dhawan, she noted, had listened to her voice discomfort throughout the shoot and into post-production.

Her focus stayed on what happens next. “The only thing that I can do is to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” she said. She hoped the episode might make future filmmakers think twice before presenting a lead actress this way, and make it easier for the next actor who says she’s uncomfortable to be taken seriously.

The controversy began when the first-look song featuring Kapoor’s character, Achiyyamma, in the Ram Charan-led Peddi was released. Viewers objected to the choreography and visuals as objectifying. Director Buchi Babu Sana later apologised to those who felt uncomfortable and said the disputed portions would be changed.