The Indian Express•Mar 22
RJ Balaji reveals how Suriya replaced Vijay in Karuppu despite ‘Thalapathy’ being impressed with the story: ‘He felt it was a big idea’
Following the colossal bombing of director Siva’s Kanguva (2024) and the underperformance of Karthik Subbaraj’s critically acclaimed Retro (2025), Suriya is in dire need of a bona fide success and is hopeful that the RJ Balaji directorial will be it. During the conversation, Balaji also commented on how he ended up at Suriya’s doorstep with the project after initially trying to launch it with actor-politician ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay. Mentioning that he started writing Karuppu in 2023, Balaji said he approached Vijay with it after realising it needed a star of significant stature, and also since the latter had already asked him for a script around 2021-22.
