Nithya Menen on the Peddi row: 'Objectification of women is not limited to South cinema'

Dubai: The conversation sparked by the backlash against Peddi is not going away, and more voices from the industry are beginning to weigh in. The latest is Nithya Menen, who used the moment to make a broader point about an issue she says runs far deeper than any single film.

Speaking to Variety India amid the ongoing debate over the portrayal of Janhvi Kapoor's character in the film, Nithya was direct. Objectification of women in cinema, she said, is not a South Indian problem. It is an industry-wide one. "Whatever works commercially and titillates the audience is often indulged in for mass success," she said. "Is it too much? Absolutely."

Nithya placed the blame squarely on what she described as the hyper-commercialisation of cinema, arguing that the relentless pursuit of mass success creates an environment where the objectification of women becomes a calculated choice rather than an accident. The pressure to deliver numbers, she suggested, regularly overrides everything else, including basic respect for the people on screen.

But she stopped short of letting everyone off the hook. Actors, she said, are not without agency in these situations. "I wonder if actors should actually have better boundaries, and the person who's performing the scene should be able to put their foot down and say they are not okay with being objectified."

Nithya's comment was particularly candid was her acknowledgement that asserting those boundaries comes at a professional cost, and that she has personally paid it. "Are there films that I don't get to do or genres that I don't get to do because I don't do certain kinds of stuff? Yes. But I am okay with it because I choose that over fame."

She was equally clear-eyed about the industry's reality. "If you have been doing this kind of commercial cinema and suddenly you are not okay with it, you may not be taken seriously. I also don't believe that you end up helpless in a situation. You can assert yourself. It depends on what that person's priority is. If you only want to be a top star and are willing to do anything to get there, then that is a call you have taken."

The controversy began following the film's June 4 release, with audiences raising concerns over how Janhvi Kapoor's character Achiyyamma is introduced on screen, and a sequence in which Ram Charan's character kisses her without her apparent consent. Director Buchi Babu Sana subsequently issued a public apology, acknowledging the concerns and confirming that changes would be made to the relevant portions of the film.

Janhvi herself has not publicly addressed the controversy, though her makeup artist Savleen Kaur Manchanda shared a post suggesting the actress had explicitly objected to certain camera angles during post-production, and that those objections were overridden in the final edit.

Peddi has collected over Rs 190 crore worldwide since its release.