Blockbuster Tamil director Karthik Subbaraj has made a big comeback to cinemas with his Jigarthanda DoubleX after almost a four-year gap. Considering the hit filmmaker's last theatrical release was 'Superstar' Rajinikanth's Petta (2019) and his subsequent films Jagame Thandhiram (2021) and Mahaan (2022) premiered directly on streaming, the excitement for his latest with Raghava Lawrence and S J Suryah in the lead roles created tremendous buzz right from the get-go. In that light, Karthik Subbaraj recently sat down for a one-on-one conversation with National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, the Editor-in-Chief of Galatta Plus, to talk about Jigarthanda DoubleX and the first reactions of Raghava Lawrence and S J Suryah after listening to the script.
Speaking about the feedback to the Jigarthanda DoubleX script from the lead stars, Karthik Subbaraj said, "Lawrence sir was excited and he said okay, but his mindset was in the mass, commercial [zone]. The thing that caught his attention in Jigarthanda was the 'Assault' Sethu character because nobody knew Bobby Simha at the time. But, when the 'Assault' Sethu character appears on the screen, the public is clapping their hands and he enjoys that. And, that's how he viewed his character too and he liked the element of playing a gangster, but once we went to shoot, it was in a completely different meter from what he had done. So, he had a shock initially, but then he got into this. But, story-wise, he was really excited and he felt really happy that this story had come to him."
Karthik Subbaraj continued, "[It was] the same thing with SJ Suryah sir also, but the only thing he had was, 'Again, I don't want to do a filmmaker character because the people have now started seeing me as an actor. Many people would tell me to continue with direction, but after Iraivi, I'm completely traveling as an actor. Now, the people are telling me not to do direction and continue acting.' And, that's when I told him that he was still acting [in a role] and the character was a filmmaker. You get to perform in that and it has a lot of room to score. He then told me that he loved the script and asked me for five days time. I too said okay, but I felt that maybe he didn't like something. I was wondering how can someone think about this for five days because the original reaction would usually be instant. So, I told him that he need not take up the role and I went looking for other options, but I wasn't able to come across the right person. Later, he also came back and said, 'See, I have this one thing that's stopping me because I played a director in Iraivi and I'd be doing the same in this one too. That was the only thing that kept running in my mind. Other than that, I actually loved the script.' He spoke to the producer and he suddenly messaged me saying after two days that we'll do the film. So, the producer came and told me about this, and again I met and I said okay. When I wrote, I actually thought SJ Suryah sir would be the perfect choice and I was actually disappointed when he said like this, but when he came back again, everything was alright."
Watch Karthik Subbaraj and Baradwaj Rangan discuss Jigarthanda DoubleX in the video below:
