Radhika Apte says she hated elements of a Telugu film she worked on, describing a plot in which her character marries her maternal uncle and, she adds, she had to romance a much older actor. The remarks are framed around her saying the experience was “the most challenging” and that it created a “very patriarchal” situation for her.
As the interview clips circulated online, some Nandamuri Balakrishna fans pushed back, linking her comments to the 2014 Telugu film “Legend,” in which she co-starred with Balakrishna. Free Press Journal reports the backlash and includes a clarification from Keerthy Suresh that such uncle-marriage arrangements can be a Tamil-Telugu cultural trope, while also noting that social media users speculate about which film Apte is referring to.
NDTV repeats Apte’s core statements about marrying her “Mama” on screen and having to romance an older actor in a Telugu film. Overall, outlets focus on the same set of remarks, with differing emphasis on whether and how audiences identify the specific movie and how fans respond once it is linked to “Legend.”
