With the film industry, now more than ever, learning to take a long, hard look at how it treats its female artistes, a distasteful comment from director Mysskin at the audio launch of Peranbu yesterday, has attracted the ire of social media.

The ace filmmaker was addressing the audience at the audio launch of Ram's Peranbu which stars Mammootty in the lead. After complimenting Ram's work, the director was gushing about Mammukka's acting in the film, when he quipped, "If I were a girl, I would have loved him." Seemingly not content with the reaction the comment he got, he took it a step further, and said, "If I were a girl, I would have raped him."

Shockingly, the comment was welcomed by laughter and applause by the people present at the function, including many popular film personalities.

The director finished off his speech by saying, "You have to create a controversy somehow to make this film a big hit and with that, my job here is done." One doesn't know whether the rape joke was premeditated, or whether Mysskin was perhaps trying to play down the seriousness of what he had just said.

With a part of the video going viral, many on social media expressed outrage at how the director had used 'rape'. When we tried reaching the director to comment on the issue, he mentioned that he's busy writing a script, and doesn't really care about any people offended by his speech.

Director Vijay was among the many celebrities at the event. "I think it was his way of expressing admiration for Mammooty's performance in the film," he said. "If it were me, I would have expressed it differently. But I think we should take Mysskin's comments only within the context of him trying to appreciate the actor. I don't think we should create controversies out of this."