Made in Korea, a Tamil coming-of-age film shot extensively in South Korea, premieres on Netflix on March 12. It follows Shenba, a young woman from a small town in Tamil Nadu who travels to Korea and discovers far more about herself than she expected. Priyanka Mohan plays the lead, reuniting with director Ra. Karthik and producer Sreenidhi Sagar after their 2022 collaboration Nitham Oru Vaanam.
The film is one of the first Tamil productions to be filmed largely in Korea, and the logistics were anything but simple. “While reading the script everything seemed easy, but once we began filming, we realised the scale of the effort involved,” said producer Sreenidhi Sagar. “However, the experience was wonderful. As a producer, I feel extremely proud after watching the final version.”
Priyanka Mohan, who has built a steady career across Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema with films like Doctor, Don and Sai Pallavi’s Saipodhaa Sanivaaram, said she prepared for the role by watching Korean dramas and picking up bits of the language. “While playing the character Shenba, I felt like I was experiencing Korea through her journey,” she said. “One word that I learnt and brought back home is ‘Kamsahamnida’, which means ‘Thank you’. Every day after the shoot, everyone in the crew would bow and say those words.”
The cultural exchange went both ways. Mohan added that the crew taught their Korean counterparts Tamil words and the Sundari song from Thalapathi during the shoot, which ran for about a month and a half.
Director Ra. Karthik, whose debut Nitham Oru Vaanam found a bigger audience on Netflix than it did in theatres, was keen to go direct-to-streaming again. “When Netflix approached me for the next film, I immediately agreed,” he said. He pointed to the platform’s global reach as a factor: Made in Korea will be dubbed in 13 languages and subtitled in 36. “Today’s generation are K-drama fans. Many of them dream of visiting Korea at least once. They are the main audience for this film.”
Karthik also revealed that the story was inspired by his wife, a K-drama fan herself. At its core, Made in Korea is about Shenba figuring out who she is. “If you have a dream and you work hard for it, it will come true one day. That is what we are saying in this film,” Sagar added.
The film also features South Korean actor Park Hye-Jin, known for Squid Game, adding a genuine cross-cultural dimension to the cast. Made in Korea arrives on Netflix on March 12.