Director Karthik Subbaraj has given his most detailed account yet of the controversy surrounding his 2016 film Iraivi, revealing how the portrayal of a producer as an antagonist prompted a complaint from a real-life producer, a threat of a red card from the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council (TNFPC) and a near-withdrawal of the film from theatres. The director has also admitted, for the first time, that he would not have assembled the same cast for the film if he had understood the budget consequences better.According to Subbaraj, the trouble began due to the timing. When Iraivi was being made, there was an existing rift between him and a producer. The film featured a producer as an antagonist, prompting a real-life producer to file a complaint with the Producers’ Council, alleging that the character was deliberately modelled on him.Iraivi’s own producers, CV Kumar and KE Gnanavel Raja, distanced themselves from Karthik Subbaraj, saying they had not seen the final cut of the film. “During Iraivi, he (the producer) filed a complaint stating that I had portrayed him as the villain in the film. Producers CV Kumar and Gnanavel Raja said they were unaware of this and that I hadn’t shown them the final film. There was even a red card issued, and the film was asked to be withdrawn from theatres,” the director recalled.The crisis was resolved when a member of the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council suggested that they all watch Iraivi together before taking action. After a screening, TNFPC concluded that the character was not specifically based on any individual and that the film was communicating something different from what had been alleged.Karthik Subbaraj said the principle that was applied was straightforward. “If we portray a police officer or a doctor as a villain, people from those professions cannot come forward and claim that they have been depicted negatively. That is how cinema works,” he said.The box office and the budget problemKarthik Subbaraj was upfront about why Iraivi’s commercial performance hurt more than it should have. The film connected with audiences, he said, but fell short of what its budget demanded. “With Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha and SJ Suryah, the expectations were higher. It was the first time I experienced something like this. Both Pizza and Jigarthanda had received a strong response from critics and were appreciated at the box office, whereas Iraivi initially received a mixed reception,” he said.Also Read: Aadarsha Kutumbam movie review: Trivikram-Venkatesh reunion deserved a better filmStory continues below this adLooking back, the director remarked that he probably would not have assembled the same cast at that point in their careers. “Vijay Sethupathi had already established his star value by 2016, and audiences had specific expectations of the kind of films he should be in. Several people told me that he should have swapped the characters played by Vijay Sethupathi and SJ Suryah. The tragic ending of Vijay Sethupathi’s character also affected the film’s reception,” Subbaraj reasoned.“However, SJ Suryah proved himself as an actor through this film. I have absolutely no regrets about casting them. The only concern was the budget. When you bring together actors of that stature, their individual salaries naturally push up the overall budget. If the film performs positively, there is no issue. But without that budget pressure, Iraivi might not have ended up with the tag of being a ‘good film that didn’t perform well at the box office.’ I could have made Iraivi with a more viable budget,” he added.Karthik Subbaraj further shared that the experience of Iraivi directly shaped how he approached Dorothy, his most recent independent film, which premiered at TIFF 2026.“One of the biggest lessons I learnt from Dorothy is that whatever script or story we choose to make, we shouldn’t allow monetary pressure to influence the creative process. There is a limit to the financial pressure we can withstand, and we shouldn’t put ourselves under unnecessary pressure.”