Karthik Subbaraj

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.^[2] His father, Gajaraj, is an actor who has acted in many supporting roles in films like Mundasupatti and Kabali.^[3]

He made the short film Kaatchipizhai in Madurai, which was selected for Nalaya Iyakunar.^[4]

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. The film was a commercial success, remade in Hindi, Bengali and Kannada.^[5] This allowed him the opportunity to make Jigarthanda, which received positive reviews and earned actor Bobby Simha a national award.^[6] Subbaraj was praised by S. Shankar and Mani 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 went through from the producer of his second film, through the character of S. J. Suryah. He then went on and directed a silent thriller, Mercury (2018), starring Prabhu Deva in the lead, which was not a commercial success.^[9] He produced Kallachirippu, a web series under his banner Stone Bench Creations.^[10]

Subbaraj directed the action drama Petta (2019) with Rajinikanth's 166th film. He also produced the Amazon original movie Penguin starring Keerthy Suresh in the lead role.^[11] He then produced the Hotstar Originals web series Triples starring Jai and Vani Bhojan.^[12]

He then directed Miracle, a short film for the Amazon Prime anthology film Putham Pudhu Kaalai (2020),^[13] and Peace, an episode for the Netflix anthology web series Navarasa (2021).^[14] In 2021, Karthik directed Jagame Thandhiram, which received mixed reviews.

He next film was the Vikram starrer Mahaan (2022) which was directly premiered on Amazon Prime Video.^[15] In 2023, he went on to direct Jigarthanda DoubleX.

He then directed Retro, starring Suriya and Pooja Hegde.^[16] It opened to positive reviews from critics praising his direction and storytelling.^[17][18] The film became a commercial success at box office.^[19][20][21]

Some critics note that Karthik's directorial films usually have plot twists, needledropping of songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja, flamboyance inspired by Quentin Tarantino's films, and the inclusion of real-life world events and politics in the form of messaging.^[22][23] 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 in Jagame Thandhiram, which disappointed some audiences.^[23]