Malayalam actor Mammootty faces online harassment over his role in 2022 movie

Malayalam actor Mammootty is facing online harassment over a film character he played in the 2022 movie Puzhu. Some right-wing netizens are calling the film anti-Brahmanical.

Trolling against the film kickstarted when thedirector Ratheena P T's husband said that his film aimed to insult the upper-caste Hindu community. In Puzhu, Mammootty played the role of an upper-caste Brahmin who opposes his sister’s marriage to a lower-caste person. Puzhu was a psychological drama.

Netizens harass Mammootty using birth name

Online trollers are using Mammootty's birth name, Muhammed Kutty, to criticise the actor. Some are calling for a total boycott of the National Award-winning actor and his upcoming films. Mammootty is a big star of the South Indian film industry and has appeared in more than 400 films.

The online hate became so intense that political leaders including ministers had to come out in support of the actor. State Revenue Minister K Rajan called Mammootty “the pride of Malayalis, and he will always remain so”. “The Sangh politics of calling Mammootty as Muhammad Kutty, Director Kamal as Kamaluddin, and Vijay as Joseph Vijay is useless here. This is Kerala,” he said.

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the “secular society of Kerala will not subscribe to the Sangh Parivar narrative, no matter how hard they try to label Mammootty, who has a clear political view and acting sense”.

“Mammootty is the first among the actors who gave Malayalam cinema an identity in world cinema with his acting excellence in a career spanning half a century,” he added.