Karthik Subbaraj is an Indian film Director, Writer and Producer working mainly in Tamil cinema.
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.
He made the short film “Kaatchipizhai” in Madurai, which was selected for Nalaya Iyakunar (a TV competition for short films).
Karthik 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 industry stalwarts like director S. Shankar and Mani Ratnam. 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 went on and directed a silent thriller, Mercury (2018), starring Prabhu Deva in its lead. He produced Kallachirippu, a web series under his banner Stone bench.
Subbaraj, A Rajinikanth fanatic, directed the action thriller Petta (2019), Rajinikanth’s 166th 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. Nawazuddin Siddiqui made his Tamil film debut with this film.
In the meanwhile he produced Amazon Original Penguin movie starring Keerthy Suresh in the lead role and Hotstar Originals Triples (web series) starring Jai and Vani Bhojan in the lead roles directed by his assistant Charukesh Sekar.
He then directed Miracle, a short for the Amazon Anthology film Putham Pudhu Kaalai which was well received. He is also awaiting the release of Jagame Thandhiram starring Dhanush in the lead role.
He is currently involved in the pre-production of Chiyaan 60 starring Vikram and Dhruv Vikram in the lead roles.
Filmography
As director
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Pizza | Debut film |
| 2014 | Jigarthanda | |
| 2015 | Bench Talkies (Segment : Neer) | |
| 2016 | Iraivi | |
| 2018 | Mercury | |
| 2019 | Petta | |
| 2020 | Putham Pudhu Kaalai (Segment : Miracle) | |
| 2021 | Jagame Thandhiram | |
| 2021 | Chiyaan 60 |
As Actor
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Soodhu Kavvum | Jaguar car owner |
As producer
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Aviyal | |
| 2017 | Meyaadha Maan | |
| 2018 | Kallachirippu | Tamil Web Series |
| 2020 | Penguin | Amazon Prime film Bilingual( Tamil / Telugu ) |
| 2020 | Triples | Hotstar Web series |