Exclusive | Suriya on Reshooting The Climax of 'Karuppu': 'I Prayed To The Karuppasamy Statue and Said: Come Inside and Guide Me'

Tamil star Suriya has revealed that the climax of Karuppu — one of the most talked-about sequences of the film — was shot six months after the production had wrapped, in two days, after director RJ Balaji called him with a new idea.

Speaking to THR India with Jyotika, Suriya said he was in the middle of shooting his upcoming family romance, Vishwanath and Sons, when Balaji told him he wasn't happy with the climax. The edit had been locked, the film had wrapped, and he was clean-shaven for the Venky Atluri film.

"Suddenly he (Balaji) says, 'No, I'm not happy with the climax. I have an idea, can we do this?'" Suriya recalled.

The actor had two days to go from Hyderabad to Chennai to redo the scene. "After six months of pack up, wrap, shoot, edit locked, then this idea comes up. Then I had to go from Hyderabad to Chennai for two days."

On the set, there was a statue of Karuppasamy behind the camera as part of a song sequence. Before he began, Suriya prayed to it for guidance to embody the God. "I just prayed to the statue, and said, just guide me... just come inside me and guide me." The climax was re-shot in those two days.

"That shoot was done with lots of sincerity and a lot of prayers," he said.

The preparation for the intensity of the scene started before the shoot. Suriya revealed how he was inspired by YouTube videos of people surrendering to a deity at religious festivals; devotees who believe a god's spirit has entered them, who make predictions for the village, and speak on the God's behalf. "They believe the spirit... the God has come within them and the God speaks to them. So I've seen those videos and how a human can behave, and how a human can become God."

It was those videos, he said, that gave him the physical vocabulary for the scene; the specific gestures, movements, and emotional register he worked into the choreography and the moments between the dance sequences. "The emotions were picked from those YouTube shorts. Those were my little inspirations to put (the emotion) in between the choreography, between the dance moments."

Suriya's next project, Venky Atluri's Vishwanath and Sons, co-stars Mamitha Baiju and arrives in theatres on August 14.

Watch the full interview with Suriya and Jyotika on The Hollywood Reporter India’s YouTube channel.