Jigarthanda (2014)

Karthik wants to make a gangster film that feels real, so a producer tells him to find a real gangster. He travels to Madurai with a friend to secretly observe Assault Sethu, a feared and volatile don, gathering stories and scenes for his script. When Sethu discovers what they are up to, the situation turns dangerous, and then strangely comic, as the gangster decides he wants to be in the movie himself. Karthik Subbaraj's second film is a sharp, genre-bending mix of black comedy, crime and a love letter to cinema, set to a celebrated Santhosh Narayanan score. Bobby Simha won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Vivek Harshan the award for editing. It was remade in Telugu as Gaddalakonda Ganesh and in Hindi as Bachchhan Paandey, and followed by Jigarthanda DoubleX (2023).