Prakash Raj & Karthi Movies Together List — 6 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s belonged to Oopiri; the 2020s to Ponniyin Selvan 1. Prakash Raj acted in every film; Karthi acted in all of them.

Partnership facts

• They first shared screen space in the 2016 bilingual 'Oopiri' (Tamil) / 'Thozha' (Telugu). Prakash Raj played the cantankerous wheelchair-bound billionaire, and Karthi played his live-in caretaker. The director Vamsi Paidipally specifically wanted two actors who could balance comedy and emotion without making the disability angle feel like a pity party.
• In 'Viruman' (2022), Prakash Raj played the abusive, alcoholic father to Karthi's son. Their confrontation scenes worked because Prakash Raj deliberately kept his performance loud and theatrical, forcing Karthi to react with a quieter, more internalized rage. Karthi later said in an interview that he had to 'unlearn' his usual energy to match Prakash Raj's tempo.
• Despite playing father-son in 'Viruman' and 'Ponniyin Selvan 2', the two never hung out socially during shoots. Karthi once joked that Prakash Raj stays in 'character mode' even between takes, so their off-screen conversations were limited to 'pass the water' and 'ready for the next shot'.
• Karthi on working with Prakash Raj in 'Viruman': 'He doesn't act. He just becomes the person. I had to remind myself that he's not actually my father, or I'd start crying between takes.'
• Their pairing in 'Oopiri' directly inspired the 2017 Hindi remake 'The Ghazi Attack'? No — but it did lead to a wave of Tamil films casting older male actors as physically disabled mentors to younger heroes, including 'Jai Bhim' (2021) and 'Sardar' (2022). Prakash Raj's performance set the template.
• In 'Ponniyin Selvan 2' (2023), they shared only one scene — a tense political exchange. Mani Ratnam shot it in a single take because both actors kept breaking character laughing at each other's improvised lines. The final cut used the first take.