Mammootty’s 'black-white' remark leaves Twitter unhappy: 'Racism is deeply rooted'

A new video of Mammootty talking about skin colour has irked Twitter users. Here's what he said.

Actor Mammootty, whose latest Malayalam release Christopher hit the screens on Thursday, has been called out by some on Twitter for his casual racist remark. It happened during a promotional interview for Christopher, which features Mammootty in the role of a vigilante cop.

A video Mammootty from an interview has arrived on Twitter.

In a clip that has surfaced on social media, Mammootty is seen casually joking with his co-star Aishwarya about his skin colour. He says that she could have called him “white” sugar instead of addressing him as jaggery, which is made of "black" karipetti.

Sharing the clip, a user on Twitter wrote, “Colourism in our society is so deep-rooted and normalised. In this clip, #Mammootty can be seen casually cracking such colourist jokes. Most of his supporters may think it's harmless, but something like this shouldn't be normal, especially coming from someone like Mammootty.”

In the comments section, people pointed out Mammootty’s problematic behaviour. One of them commented, “Racism is deeply rooted among the people as well. That's the reason you rarely find dark skinned heroes, especially heroines.” “Especially someone, who's often associated with the word 'updation'," added another one. Someone else also said, “True fact. Basically whole Kerala society is racist. They do not prefer people with dark skin. Sad state of educated Keralites."

Christopher is directed by B. Unnikrishnan. Besides Mammootty, it also stars Sneha, Shine Tom Chacko and Amala Paul in key roles. The film is written by Udaykrishna while Justin Varghese scored the music. The cinematography is done by Faiz Siddik. The film has been shot in several places across Kerala such as Ernakulam, Pooyamkutty and Vandiperiyar.

Besides this, Mammotty was recently seen in Malayalam psychological drama Rorschach, which featured him in the role of Luke Anthony, an NRI businessman who avenges the death of his pregnant wife. It was directed by Nisam Basheer. Asif Ali played the primary antagonist in the film and he reportedly worked free of cost.

At the box-office, Rorschach grossed over ₹75 crore worldwide. Before this, he starred in Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, which was very well received at the box-office.