Karthik Subbaraj reveals Rajinikanth’s life inspired Jigarthanda Double X; calls film a tribute to pioneers

Karthik Subbaraj’s latest film, Jigarthanda Double X, is all set to hit the big screens on November 10, and the hype is higher than ever. The filmmaker, along with the two lead actors, Raghava Lawrence and SJ Suryah have been busy with the final rounds of film promotions.

The film’s trailer dropped on November 4 and has garnered positive reviews all around. The trailer also featured several shots and sequences which were references to some of the pioneers in filmmaking. In a recent interview, Karthik Subbaraj revealed that the film was inspired by Rajinikanth’s life. He also revealed in another interview with The Hindu that Jigarthanda Double X is his tribute to Satyajit Ray and Clint Eastwood.

The Rajinikanth connect in Jigarthanda Double X trailer

It is a well-known fact that Karthik Subbaraj is an ardent fan of Thalaivar Rajinikanth. He has often taken to social media to express his love for the actor as well. So it was unsurprising that fans quickly connected the dots from the trailer of the upcoming film.

The trailer begins by revealing that the story is taking place in 1975 and that nobody could even imagine a dark-skinned hero at that point in time. Fans quickly speculated that this could be a reference to Rajinikanth as the first dark-skinned hero.

In a recent interview, Karthik Subbaraj confirmed the speculations and said: “The factor of ‘Tamil cinema-vin muthal karuppu hero’ (first dark-skinned hero of Tamil cinema) in Jigarthanda Double X is inspired by Superstar Rajinikanth.”

He further added that the film is set in 1975 as Rajinikanth made his debut in that year, with K. Balachander’s film Apoorva Ragangal. The helmer said that it helped him write the screenplay, and added that Apoorva Ragangal is referenced at a particular point of time in the film.

In fact, Karthik Subbaraj recently revealed via social media that if he had been born several decades ago, he would have liked to make the film with Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan in the lead roles. He even shared a poster with the two of them as the characters played by Raghava Lawrence and SJ Suryah respectively.

Jigarthanda Double X is a tribute to Satyajit Ray and Clint Eastwood

The trailer explicitly mentions two pioneers in the world of films, Satyajit Ray and Clint Eastwood. In fact, SJ Suryah’s character is an aspiring filmmaker who has worked as an assistant to Satyajit Ray, while Raghava Lawrence’s character wishes to have a cut-out similar to that of Clint Eastwood in the local theater.

Talking about this in a recent interview, the filmmaker revealed that the film is a tribute to Eastwood and Satyajit Ray and mentioned that their influence will be visible in the film.