Under 18: Kichcha Sudeep boards a crime-network drama

SR Productions has launched its second film, Under 18, and the casting note that travels furthest is Kichcha Sudeep coming aboard a Tamil crime drama in a key role, alongside leads Vikranth and Aishwarya Rajesh. The film was sent off with a pooja in Chennai, and it is the first feature for Karthik Perumal Samy, who spent years inside Vetrimaaran’s team, from Polladhavan onward, before stepping out to direct.

The premise is the kind Vetrimaaran’s school tends to favour. A young man with dreams of studying medicine is pulled, almost by accident, into an organised crime network, and the fight to get him back out falls to his father and mother. Karthik Perumal Samy says he researched lesser-known criminal underbellies across Tamil Nadu and built the story off the impact of real incidents, framing it as an emotional drama about an ordinary family caught in the machinery of the crime world. The film’s earlier title look had set that story inside a government observation home, the state-run home for minors that the title itself points to.

Vikranth and Aishwarya Rajesh anchor that family story, with Kishore Chethan also in a key part. Sudeep’s involvement is the producers’ headline, and by their account it came easily: he agreed to hear the script on Vikranth’s word, and said yes almost as soon as the narration was done. He had planned to attend the launch but a clash with another film kept him away, with the team saying he will be at the next event.

For the director, the day was a long time coming. The lyricist Ilango Krishnan, a friend of fifteen years, said Karthik had first told him this story close to seven years ago, and that the film also makes good on his mother’s long-held wish to see him direct. The crew carries weight too: Velraj, himself a cinematographer-turned-director, is behind the camera, with Sam C.S. on music and Ilango Krishnan and Karthik Netha writing the songs.

The launch pulled a sizeable industry turnout. Sarathkumar and Radhika, Sripriya, producers R.K. Suresh and Five Star Kathiresan, and director S.R. Prabhakaran were among those who came to wish the team, most of them pointing to Karthik’s Vetrimaaran grounding as the reason to watch the project. Shooting starts soon, with the major schedules planned for Hosur, Chengalpattu and Chennai, shot on real locations.