‘Bordering on sexual assault’: Janhvi Kapoor breaks silence on morphed 'Chuttamalle' video

Janhvi Kapoor has broken her silence over an AI-morphed video based on the Chuttamalle song from Devara: Part 1, calling the use of technology to objectify women and circulate fabricated content without consent “deeply violating” and “bordering on sexual assault”.

The manipulated video, which circulated widely on social media, altered footage featuring Janhvi and Jr NTR from the popular song to depict the actor in sexually explicit imagery that was not part of the original video. The content triggered widespread criticism over the growing misuse of generative artificial intelligence to create non-consensual sexualised material.

‘Criminal misuse’

In a detailed statement shared on Instagram Stories, Janhvi said the controversy went beyond what had happened to her personally and reflected a much wider problem confronting women.

“The criminal misuse of technology to objectify women and circulate fictionalised content without consent is deeply violating, bordering on sexual assault,” she said.

Janhvi added that almost every woman in the film industry had encountered some version of such objectification and that women outside the industry were increasingly being subjected to similar abuse as technology made manipulated content easier to create and circulate.

‘Consent is not complicated’

The actor used her statement to underline that consent, choice and control over one’s body were fundamental and should not be treated as complicated concepts.

She argued that previous consent could never be interpreted as permanent consent and that a woman retained the right to draw or change her boundaries at any point. What a woman wears, she said, also cannot be treated as permission to photograph, film or digitally manipulate her in a manner she has not agreed to.

Janhvi said decisions about what a woman was comfortable with and how her body or image was used belonged exclusively to her.

Beyond one deepfake

Janhvi said the controversy surrounding the AI-generated videos she had encountered over the past few days represented only one part of a much larger problem.

She pointed to the “gaze”, judgement and constant negotiation for safety that women face in their everyday lives, arguing that the threat had now expanded into the digital sphere even as society continued to struggle with women’s physical safety.

The growing sophistication of generative AI has made it increasingly possible to manipulate photographs, videos and voices to create realistic fabricated material. The Chuttamalle controversy has brought renewed attention to the particular threat such technology poses to women when used to manufacture sexualised content without consent.

Jr NTR vows legal action

Janhvi’s statement came after her Devara co-star Jr NTR strongly condemned the manipulated video and vowed legal action against those responsible for creating and circulating it.

Calling the content “disgusting, sick and shameless”, Jr NTR urged people not to watch, share or engage with the video. He also called upon state governments and the Centre to act against the misuse of artificial intelligence and strengthen safeguards against such material.

Other members of the film industry, including Chiranjeevi, Vijay Deverakonda and Khushbu Sundar, also condemned the video and called for greater accountability over the misuse of AI.

Industry support

Janhvi thanked those who publicly supported her, saying men speaking out against such behaviour could make a difference to women who routinely face objectification and harassment.

She argued that the answer could not simply be to tell families to “protect your daughter”. Society, she said, also needed to challenge the conditioning that allowed people to believe they were entitled to violate another person’s boundaries.

Janhvi said exemplary men willing to clearly distinguish between right and wrong could play an important role in changing such attitudes.

‘Her image. Her choice’

The actor concluded her statement by bringing the debate back to individual autonomy and consent. Her message was summed up in three short assertions — “Her body. Her image. Her boundaries. Her choice.”

The controversy has consequently moved beyond one manipulated celebrity video to the wider question of how rapidly developing AI tools can be prevented from being used to create and spread non-consensual sexualised content.