Jagame Thandhiram: Wanted to Cast Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro Opposite Dhanush, Says Karthik Subbaraj

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posted on 3 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Director Karthik Subbaraj, who cast 'GOT' actor James Cosmo as the antagonist, reveals that he had initially planned to cast Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.

Dhanush’s latest release Jagame Thandhiram, which is streaming on Netflix, arrived amid much anticipation and has been receiving a decent response from the audience. Set in the United Kingdom, the gangster drama touches upon the issue of immigrants and xenophobia. Filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj, who cast Game Of Thrones actor James Cosmo as the antagonist, revealed that he had initially planned to cast Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.

“The film was earlier set in New York. I wanted to cast a known face and that’s when we decided to approach Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Once we got in touch with their casting agents and managers we realised that the budget would shoot up excessively,” Subbaraj told us.

Subbaraj further said that they decided to shift the film to London and that’s when he decided to cast James Cosmo. “The film was initially set in New York which was expensive than shooting in London. Also, I could easily incorporate Tamil immigration in the story as the Tamil population was more in the United Kingdom. Also, all this happened around Brexit and there were certain people who wanted some changes in immigration law. So we did re-write a few things to incorporate these political sensibilities. Later we approached Cosmo and he really liked the script and that’s how he came on board.”

The film was originally set to release in theaters last year, but the makers decided to release it on an OTT platform owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Subbaraj said that it was a completely new experience for him and he was happy with it. “The decision was taken by the producers for many reasons. Although I would have loved the film to release in theaters, the situation wasn’t favourable. But releasing on Netflix was also a good decision. It is a new experience for me but I have been receiving positive feedback and also the film is being watched globally. It is dubbed in so many languages. Also, the film would run on a restricted time in theaters but on OTT, people can decide to watch it after a month also so that’s a good thing too,” he concluded.

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