Ram Charan's upcoming film Peddi, directed by Buchi Babu Sana has been at the centre of many controversies over the past few weeks. Among them, the sports action drama has been receiving massive backlash over objectification of its female stars Janhvi Kapoor and Shruti Haasan through the songs 'Chikiri Chikiri' and 'Hallallallo'.
While the former was criticised for its "vulgar" lyrics, the latter too was called "inappropriate" and designed for the "male gaze."
Ram Charan had denied the allegations in a recent interview with Navika Kumar for Zoom and drew comparisons with the Oscar-winning composition 'Naatu Naatu' from SS Rajamouli's RRR. "Frankly, if I enjoyed shaking a leg to 'Naatu Naatu' with my colleague Jr NTR, I felt the same happiness working with both Shruti and Janhvi. I didn’t see any difference between the two songs. I don’t know how it led to allegations of objectification, but that was never our intention," he said.
He further stressed that intent matters. "If that had been our intention and it was conveyed in the same way, I would be concerned about the audience perceiving it that way. But that was not our intention at all," he added.
For the unversed, the makers of Peddi were also called out for their association with choreographer Jani, who had admitted to sexually assaulting a junior colleague in 2024. He was booked under the POCSO act and faced arrest in the case. He was later granted bail.
Besides Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor, the film, which has music composed by AR Rahman, also stars Shivarajkumar, Jagapathi Babu, Divyenndu and Boman Irani.
The film is being produced by Venkata Satish Kilaru under the Vriddhi Cinemas banner, while Mythri Movie Makers is presenting the project in association with Sukumar Writings.
Peddi is slated to release in theatres on June 4.
