Leading Tamil filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj is back with a bang with his Jigarthanda DoubleX, which marks his big return to cinemas after nearly four years since Petta (2019) with 'Superstar' Rajinikanth. The blockbuster director, whose latest venture starring Raghava Lawrence and S J Suryah in the lead roles and featuring music by Santhosh Narayanan is receiving glowing reviews from all quarters, recently sat down with celebrated film critic Baradwaj Rangan, the Editor-in-Chief of Galatta Plus, to explain why it took him so many years to make the film after his Jigarthanda (2014), which was headlined by Siddharth and earned Bobby Simha a National Award.
Starting off with opening up on what 'a Karthik Subbaraj' film is, the Jigarthanda DoubleX director said, "My first [focus] is that [my films] should not have a common thread or factor. When I did Pizza, many people told me to do a horror film next saying it would do well because the people would expect that. Although it's not an actual horror film, the people enjoyed the horror scenes. I said, 'No, I don't want that to happen. And, that's when I went for my first script, which is Jigarthanda. After finishing Jigarthanda, when I was doing a film for [producer] CV Kumar sir, he said, 'Try to do a gangster film since Jigarthanda did really well. Why are you bringing a film like Iraivi?' So, I consciously made only one effort that there shouldn't be a common factor [in my films]. Not only with respect to the audience but also with respect to me because when I sit down to write a film with a common factor, I also feel not much into it. It becomes like a job. I felt not to keep repeating something based on a formula. And, that is why it took all these years for me to make Jigarthanda DoubleX because I got an idea initially during Iraivi."
Karthik Subbaraj continues, "Lawrence sir was supposed to do Jigarthanda. I went and narrated the story, but it didn't happen. I went after producer Kathiresan told me to approach him to play the 'Assault' Sethu character. I was about to fix Bobby [Simha], but we were also trying other people. And, that is when I narrated my script to him, but he requested a few changes, but it didn't work out at the time. So, after that, I said that I would go ahead with Bobby and we finished the film. After it was released, he called me again and asked me whether there was any other script we could work on. I was shooting Iraivi at that time and this idea had just started [to develop]. It just sparked. I felt I could do a part two for Jigarthanda and shared my idea with him. He said we could do it, but I felt that I didn't want to go into the same zone since I had just done Jigarthanda at the time. This had to be something else and we should keep the spirit of the film, but there should be something much more than Jigarthanda, and I wasn't ready for that at the time. I then told him that we'll make the film when I feel like I can. So, when I again thought about it, I felt that this has more layers and a deeper story to be told through this, and I decided to go ahead. That's what keeps me alive when I'm writing for it. Otherwise, it becomes monotonous and I'm not into it."
Watch Karthik Subbaraj and Baradwaj Rangan discuss Jigarthanda DoubleX in the video below:
