Actor Regina Cassandra has reacted to Janhvi Kapoor‘s comments about the objectification of her character in ‘Peddi’ and Radhika Apte‘s account of her experience working in Telugu cinema. Regina believes that actors who are uncomfortable with the way their characters are portrayed should walk away from a project if they have the option. She also expressed her displeasure over what she sees as a growing North-South divide in the film industry, saying that such comments can further widen the gap.In an interview with India Today, Regina said that established actors should be in a position to refuse projects if they disagree with certain aspects of their portrayal. She said, “I feel like at the end of the day, if they feel uncomfortable, please walk out to the film. I don’t think, we should be put in a place where we say we didn’t have a choice. This is not against a man or a woman. As a woman, it is very easy for me to take sides, I will obviously take the side of the woman, but I don’t think any of us today, especially the examples that you gave, I don’t think either of them are in a place where they can’t walk out a film, especially being who they are.“Regina also brought up her own experience with Dharma Productions during the promotions of ‘Kesari 2’, in which she played the wife of Akshay Kumar’s character. The actress alleged that the production house did not acknowledge her or tag her in its social media posts, despite her featuring in one of the film’s songs.Explaining why she had an issue with the way some North Indian actors spoke about the South Indian film industry, Regina said, “I really have a big issue with when a north Indian actor talks about south Indian cinema like that because you’re making a north-south divide without you even realizing it and that’s absolutely wrong. There are different ways of handling this. Also, Janhvi has spoken about being objectified on Karan Johar‘s show, the same Karan’s Dharma Productions decided not to promote me in their film Kesari 2. Now, what am I supposed to call that? Objectifying what? That I’m a South-Indian? Till date I do not even know why they didn’t. It is very strange. They shared that Kesari 2’s song on Instagram and I am featuring in that song from start to finish, but they didn’t even tag me.”Janhvi Kapoor, who starred opposite Ram Charan in director Buchi Babu Sana’s ‘Peddi’, had earlier spoken about the criticism surrounding the portrayal of her character. Several viewers questioned the camera angles and accused the makers of sexualising and objectifying her character.During her appearance on ‘Koffee with Karan‘, Janhvi acknowledged that she could have been more careful while filming and admitted that the experience had been difficult. She described it as “violating” and spoke about the challenges of navigating the filmmaking process without having access to a bound script or knowing how certain scenes would be shot.“I don’t like saying this because it sounds like I am shifting blame but it’s like you listen to the director and what he says. I was navigating how to make things less problematic as and when information was becoming available to me. In the south, very rarely there is a bound script. Very rarely do you see the camera angles. I should have taken advantage of my privilege. It was a violating experience in a way,” she said.
