Jigarathanda DoubleX director Karthik Subbaraj: ‘Working with big stars shouldn’t be destiny for directors’

Karthik Subbaraj, the director of Rajinikanth's Petta, said that asking young directors when they will team up with big stars is like putting pressure on them.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | November 7, 2023 08:57 PM IST

3 min read

Karthik Subbaraj's Instagram post

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One of the long-standing criticisms against directors like Lokesh Kanagaraj and Nelson Dilipkuamr is that they are losing their voice while directing big stars. Nelson’s Beast and Lokesh’s Leo are stated as examples of the argument. The time constraint and writing stories for the stars are cited as the reason behind the failure of such good directors. Weighing in on the same, Karthik Subbaraj, in a recent interview, said that starting a film in a hurry without a bound script is a bad idea.

When asked if it is the right thing to make a film or a script based on the availability of a hero’s call sheet, Karthik told Galatta Plus, “I can’t do it. And I don’t think it is a good thing. Even with Petta (starring Rajinikanth), I was ready with a bound script and only after Rajini sir read it, we went ahead with it. I haven’t felt any pressure for my other films. But we can’t say it shouldn’t be done. That’s the model and if you have to do with that time constraint, you can with big stars. But that’s going to affect the quality of the output. Without finishing your script, if you are going to shoot, there’s a lot of chances that it would go wrong.”

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Karthik Subbaraj, however, admitted that he wrote Petta just for Rajinikanth, and that’s the only film he has written for an actor. Otherwise, the director chooses his actors according to the script.

Adding to it, Karthik said, “Wherever I go people ask me, ‘When are you going to work with Vijay or Ajith or with Rajini sir again?’ I see this as a pressure because directing big stars is not like destiny. We come to make good films. Working with stars is like an add-on. When I came in to make films, I never thought I would work with Thalaivar. I never even dreamt of meeting him. It happened, which is a good thing.”

Karthik Subbaraj is back with Jigarathanda DoubleX, which is his first theatrical release in four years. After Petta, the director’s two films–Jagamae Thandhiram and Mahaan–were released on OTT due to the pandemic. The director admitted he is quite anxious about the release of Jigarathanda DoubleX, which stars SJ Suryah and Raghava Lawrence in the lead roles.

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