Karthik Subbaraj’s Tamil film Dorothy has grossed ₹4.15 crore worldwide, showing steady growth from a ₹0.9 crore opening in India to ₹1.4 crore on Day 3. The 1990s-set drama, starring Rishikanth, Sananth and Keerthy Suresh, tackles caste and gender bias in rural Madurai and has drawn both critical acclaim and online trolling over its portrayal of trans characters.
Karthik Subbaraj's latest Tamil film Dorothy has grossed ₹4.15 crore worldwide, according to box-office tracker Sacnilk. The film, which opened with ₹ 0.9 crore in India net collections on September 24, has grown through Day 3 collections, making ₹1.4 crore on Sunday.
The film, co-starring Rishikanth, Sananth, and Keerthy Suresh, explores the lives of two friends navigating caste and gender biases in rural Madurai in the nineties. While the film opened to critical acclaim, it has also faced trolling from certain sections of X over its depiction of Trans characters. Subbaraj, however, in his posts on X, has retained the audience's trust by persistently posting the caption, "Be calm and believe in the audience."
The filmmaker addressed the trolling recently, adding that it doesn't really cause concern. "There is some hatred online but that is a very small percentage. The film has created a good conversation. If people have an issue with watching a story about the trans community, whose problem is it? A lot of people are pointing out that it might be an internal problem, but everyone should come in to watch the film," Subbaraj said at a recent press gathering.
Speaking to THR India in an exclusive interview, Subbaraj said the shift in scale and working method on Dorothy brought him back to something essential. "There's a house which we often show in the film. One day I was shooting there, and I somehow felt like this is very real, these are actually real people, and I'm just keeping a camera. Achieving that gave me a real high. This is what filmmaking is." He explained that he had always enjoyed the cinematic drama of his bigger productions, but that Dorothy gave him an equal and different kind of excitement. "This is why I came into filmmaking."
Subbaraj also pointed to the masters of Tamil cinema — J Mahendran, Balu Mahendra, K Balachander, Bharathiraja — as filmmakers whose work served as inspiration while making Dorothy. "This film has complete inspiration from all the masters of Tamil cinema. They have all made something like this before."
Dorothy had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and is now in theatres.