Karthik Subbaraj | |
|---|---|
 Karthik atIraivi Press Meet in 2016 | |
| Born | (1983-03-19)March 19, 1983 (age 42) Madurai,Tamil Nadu, India |
| Alma mater | Thiagarajar College of Engineering |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Spouse | [1] |
| Relatives | Gajaraj (Father) |
Karthik Subbaraj (born 19 March 1983) is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter working mainly inTamil cinema.
Karthik did his schooling inSBOA Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, Madurai after which he went on to studymechatronics atThiagarajar College of Engineering. During his college days he performed stage shows and skits.[2] His father, Gajaraj, is an actor who has acted in many supporting roles in films likeMundasupatti andKabali.[3]
He made the short film "Kaatchipizhai" in Madurai, which was selected forNalaya Iyakunar.[4]
Karthik had intended to directJigarthanda first but could not fund the project. He then came up with the story for the low-budgetPizza. The film was a commercial success, remade in Hindi, Bengali and Kannada.[5] This allowed him the opportunity to makeJigarthanda, which received positive reviews and earned actorBobby Simha a national award.[6] Subbaraj was praised byS. Shankar andMani Ratnam.[7][8]
His third movie,Iraivi (2016), received positive reviews, and Subbaraj was praised for the film's portrayal of society's treatment of women. The movie also observed the various ways men's attitudes and behaviors impact women throughout life. He also showcased the pain he gothrough from the producer of his second film, through the character ofS. J. Suryah. He then went on and directed a silent thriller,Mercury (2018), starringPrabhu Deva in the lead, which was not a commercial success.[9] He producedKallachirippu, a web series under his bannerStone Bench Creations.[10]
Subbaraj directed the action dramaPetta (2019) withRajinikanth's 166th film. He also produced the Amazon original moviePenguin starringKeerthy Suresh in the lead role.[11] He then produced the Hotstar Originals web seriesTriples starringJai andVani Bhojan.[12]
He then directed Miracle, a short film for the Amazon Prime anthology filmPutham Pudhu Kaalai (2020),[13] and Peace, an episode for the Netflix anthology web seriesNavarasa (2021).[14] In 2021, Karthik directedJagame Thandhiram, which received mixed reviews.
He next film was theVikram starrerMahaan (2022) which was directly premiered onAmazon Prime Video.[15] In 2023, he went on to directJigarthanda DoubleX.
He is currently collaborating withSuriya forRetro.[16]
Vivek MV ofDeccan Herald notes that Karthik's directorial films usually haveplot twists,needledropping of songs composed byIlaiyaraaja, and flamboyance inspired byQuentin Tarantino's films. Karthik, however, has stated that he prefers not to associate with any particular filmmaking style as he seeks to reinvent himself with every new film, noting how he intentionally avoided including a plot twist inJagame Thandhiram which disappointed some audiences.[17]
| † | Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Pizza | Debut film | |
| 2014 | Jigarthanda | ||
| 2015 | Bench Talkies | Segment:Neer | |
| 2016 | Iraivi | ||
| 2018 | Mercury | ||
| 2019 | Petta | ||
| 2020 | Putham Pudhu Kaalai | Segment:Miracle Released onAmazon Prime Video | |
| 2021 | Jagame Thandhiram | Released onNetflix | [18] |
| Navarasa | Netflix original series; segment:Peace | [14] | |
| 2022 | Mahaan | Released onAmazon Prime Video | [15] |
| 2023 | Jigarthanda DoubleX | Ananda Vikatan Cinema Award for Best Director | [19][20] |
| 2025 | Retro† | Post-production |
| Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Aviyal | ||
| 2017 | Meyaadha Maan | ||
| 2018 | Kallachirippu | ZEE5 original series | |
| 2020 | Penguin | Released onAmazon Prime Video | |
| Triples | Hotstar original series | ||
| 2021 | Boomika | Released onStar Vijay &Netflix | [21] |
| 2022 | Attention Please | Malayalam film; as presenter | [22] |
| Buffoon | |||
| Ammu | Telugu film released onAmazon Prime Video | [23] |
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | ||||
| 2024 | Game Changer | Story | Telugu Film |
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| Santhosh Narayanan |  | | | | | | | | |
| Gajaraj | | | | | | | | ||
| Vivek Harshan | | | | | | | |||
| Bobby Simha | | | | | | ||||
| Ramachandran Durairaj | | | | | | | |||
| Aadukalam Naren | | | | | | ||||
| Sananth | | | | (uncredited) | |||||
| Vijay Sethupathi | | (cameo) | | | |||||
| Vettai Muthukumar | | | | ||||||
| Deepak Paramesh | | | | | |||||
| Karunakaran | | | | | |||||
| S. J. Suryah | | | |||||||
| Joju George | | | |||||||
| Suriya | |
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)