Peddi producer talks about Ram Charan, Janhvi Kapoor film's weak box office performance in Hindi amid backlash

At a ‘thank you meet’ in Hyderabad to talk about Peddi's weekend performance at the box office, producer Venkata Satish Kilaru said this.

The Peddi team held a ‘thank you meet’ in Hyderabad on Monday evening to discuss the film’s box-office performance over the weekend. Producer Venkata Satish Kilaru of Vriddhi Cinemas was candid about the film's weak performance at the Hindi box office and admitted that collections finally picked up in the language only on Sunday. (Also Read: Sona Mohapatra says backlash for sexualised depiction in Peddi forcing filmmaker to apologise has given her hope)

Janhvi Kapoor and Ram Charan play the leads in Buchi Babu Sana's Peddi. (Sunil Khandare)

Peddi producer on film’s Hindi performance

Venkata began his speech by thanking the Telugu audience for bringing the most collections to the film, stating, “First of all, I need to thank the audiences in the Telugu states. I cannot express my gratitude for how you’ve showered the film with love.” He also claimed that the film was performing well on Monday, adding, “Everyone waited to see how the film would perform on Monday, and it performed extraordinarily. I am very thankful to the Telugu audience.”

He then addressed Peddi’s low collections in Hindi despite the film’s team extensively promoting it there and even holding a pre-release event in Bhopal. “Even in Hindi, they’re saying it picked up yesterday. They’ve said that it collected around ₹5.5-6 crore. So, I hope the film's collections pick up in Hindi too,” said Venkata. According to the trade website Sacnilk, Peddi collected ₹3.85 crore in Hindi on Sunday, part of its Sunday haul of ₹31.90 crore.

Before that, Peddi had collected ₹2.80 crore from ₹28.85 crore on Saturday, ₹2.25 crore from ₹26.90 crore on Friday and ₹3 crore from ₹51 crore on Thursday. These numbers are low, given that the filmmakers also banked on collecting a good number in Hindi, as with Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2: The Rule, which performed well in the language. Ram Charan, Jagapathi Babu and filmmaker Buchi Babu Sana also attended the event and spoke about the film.

About Peddi

Peddi is directed by Buchi Babu Sana, and this is his second film after Uppena (2021). The film tells the story of a marginalised man who finds a way to make his voice heard through sport. Peddi received massive backlash after its release for the way it portrayed Janhvi Kapoor’s character in the film. Buchi issued an apology and stated that the objectionable scenes from the film are being removed. Peddi has performed well in Telugu in four days of its release, collecting ₹157.15 crore net in India and ₹233.02 crore worldwide.