Keerthy Suresh was the perfect choice for Penguin: Jagame Thandhiram director Karthik Subbaraj

The ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ director calls himself the creative producer of the Eashvar Karthic-directed ‘Penguin’ which is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on June 19. Karthik Subbaraj is very happy with the way the film has turned out and can’t wait for the audience to watch the movie from his production house.

“When I met Eashvar Karthic, he was very clear about the way he wanted to shoot the film and his first choice to play the central character was Keerthy Suresh. We needed a strong female lead to play the role of Rhythm and she was perfect,” he says adding that post ‘Mahanati’, Keerthy had proved that she could essay role with finesse.

The title of the film and the name of the character were quite unique to Tamil cinema and Karthik smiles, “Yes. I asked Eashvar whether Rhythm was her name and he said yes. It suits the film when you watch it.”

Watch Penguin Trailer here—

Ask him about young Keerthy Suresh playing the role of a mother in ‘Penguin’ and Karthik says, “You see that she is a young mother and then she is also pregnant. When the film was narrated to her, she was excited and she has done a brilliant job in the film.”

He further adds that he roped in friend and music director Santhosh Narayanan for ‘Penguin’ because it was his kind of film. “I narrated the project to him and he felt there was a lot of scope for him in this film to try out something new,” says Karthik. The director also praises the technical brilliance of cinematographer Karthik Palani and editor Anil Krish for their work on this film.

Kollywood has been divided on films releasing on OTT platforms but the director says OTT platforms can never replace theatres. “Though some movies are releasing now on OTT, theatres will continue to thrive and the audience will go to theatres to watch films. Both the mediums will co-exist,” he says confidently.

While ‘Penguin’ is releasing now, there are two other films from his production house, Stone Bench Creations, that are ready for release – the Aishwarya Rajesh-starrer directed by Rateendran Prasad, a horror thriller, which will release in theatres; and the Ashok Veerappan-directed film starring Vaibhav and Anagha. “We are yet to decide about its release whether on OTT or otherwise,” he adds.