Karthik Subbaraj is an Indian film director, writer and producer. He made the short film "Kaatchipizhai" in Madurai, which was selected for Nalaya Iyakunar. He then went on to make other films and released the 2012 low-budget thriller Pizza which was a commercial success. He won the Best Debutante Director in 2013 at SIMA awards. His film Jigarthanda, which deals with the Madurai underworld, was released in September 2014 and received critical acclaim. The film starred Siddharth, Lakshmi Menon, Bobby Simha and Karunakaran. He then went on to direct Rajinikanth, in his 5th directorial venture Petta, produced by Sun Pictures which ultimately became the second highest-grossing movie of Tamil cinema after Bigil in 2019.
Life and career
Karthik did his schooling in SBOA Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, Madurai after which he went on to study Mechatronics at Thiagarajar College of Engineering. During his college days he performed stage shows and skits. His father, Gajaraj, is an actor who has acted in many supporting roles in films like Mundasupatti and Kabali. Karthik Subbaraj had intended to direct Jigarthanda first but could not fund the project. He then came up with the story for the low-budget Pizza which introduced the 7.1 sound system. The film was a commercial success, remade in Hindi and Kannada. This allowed him the opportunity to make Jigarthanda, which received positive reviews and earned actor Bobby Simha a national award. Subbaraj was praised by Tamil actor Vijay and director Mani Rathnam. His third movie, Iraivi, 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 went on and directed a silent thriller, Mercury, starring Prabhu Deva in its lead. He produced Kallachirippu, a web series under his banner Stone bench. Subbaraj, A Rajinikanth fanatic, directed the action thrillerPetta, Rajinikanth's 165th film. Kalanithi Maran of Sun Pictures produced the film while Anirudh Ravichander composed the film's music, replacing Karthik's usual music director, Santhosh Narayanan who composed for the director's previous ventures. Trisha and Simran play the female leads and Vijay Sethupathi as the film's main antagonist. Nawazuddin Siddiqui made his Tamilfilm debut. Also starring in the film in a prominent supporting role is Bobby Simha.
