Chennai: Tamil actress Padma Priya has alleged that she was slapped by the director of her forthcoming film Mirugam(Animal).

Padma Priya alleges that film director Samy slapped her in front of the whole crew, just because her performance in a scene was not good enough. But Samy on the other hand claims the actress was at fault.

“I took 10 takes. In the 11th take her mind was not there. In between she used a bad word. I got angry and hence I used to beat her,” says Samy.

Padma Priya has now approached the South Indian Artistes Association, Nadigar Sangam for justice.

The actress has won acclaim for her roles in many Malayalam movies, and more recent Tamil productions like Cheran's Thavamai Thavamirundu. She has even been roped by veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan his next movie.

Film critics feel Samy has gone too far in abusing an actress of her stature.

“You don’t go and abuse your own lead actress. It’s never done. Padmapriya for example is a very fine actress,” says film critic, Sreedhar Pillai.

It's hard to say if a male actor would ever have been meted out such a treatment if he were in Padma Priya'ss situation. And the question is how far can one go for art's sake, and is it necessary at the expense of someone's personal dignity?