Dhanush, Karthik Subbaraj and the industry rally behind Karuppu

A Karuppu opening that should have happened at 9 AM on Thursday hadn’t happened at 9 PM either. The film was held off by a financier dispute, then accidentally let loose by Qube up north, and through the afternoon and evening the rest of the Tamil industry kept the team company on X (formerly known as Twitter). A round-up of who showed up.

Dhanush led with the night’s biggest-reach post: Suriya and Karuppu, he said, deserved a proper theatrical release, and he hoped the issues would clear quickly. Karthik Subbaraj followed minutes later, calling the film a “huge blockbuster” the moment the hurdles broke.

Director Venkat Prabhu, between his own back-to-back theatrical runs, said the film deserved the screen it had been built for. Ravi Mohan kept it short: eagerly waiting, more strength to the team.

GV Prakash pinned a “don’t support piracy” line to his message, sharp on the heels of the Qube screening row. Santhosh Narayanan invoked Karuppusamy by name and asked the team to stay strong.

Ashok Selvan reached for the human side, naming the families behind every film and the years of sacrifice that go into one. G Dhananjheyan, who reads the trade more than he writes from inside it, put a number on the loss: a 50 to 60 crore global opening, in his read, was what Thursday would have been.

Senior director Lingusamy posted with the affection of a peer waiting for the lights to dim. Rathna Kumar’s note was the most personal of the lot, written directly to RJ Balaji: “Can’t see you break like this. Stay strong, brother.”

Shanthnu used his post to flag the clips already circulating online from the up-north screenings, and asked people to respect the work that had gone into the film. Sibi Sathyaraj signed off the evening with the simplest line of the lot: strength and success.

The team is now targeting a fresh 9 AM start on Friday. Whether that holds depends on the financiers; the messaging through the day, from this list and well outside it, has been that nobody in the trade wants this one to slip further.