Radhika Apte faces criticism over remarks regarding film Legend

Actor Radhika Apte has drawn criticism from social media users following comments regarding her experience working on the 2014 Telugu film Legend. During a recent interaction, Apte described a challenging experience in a Telugu film where she had to romance a much older actor and play a character who marries her uncle. She characterized the situation as patriarchal and noted that her character died midway through the story.

Although Apte did not explicitly name the film, netizens identified it as Legend, starring Nandamuri Balakrishna. Critics on social media have questioned why the actor expressed these grievances a decade later, noting that she had previously praised the film's scale and subsequently worked with Balakrishna again in the 2015 film Lion. The controversy has also reignited debates regarding the relationship between Bollywood actors and the Telugu film industry, with some fans accusing regional cinema of being unfairly scrutinized by actors from the Hindi film industry.