For director Karthik Subbaraj, Shankar's Game Changer (2025), was a first in his career. It was the first time in his career he has written a story for a film helmed by another director. While the film received mixed reviews, Karthik Subbaraj revealed his original story for the film.
Speaking in an interview with Student Tribe, Karthik said, "I had a story and I gave the story to Shankar sir. He also asked if I could write a screeplay, but at the time I was in the pre-production of Mahaan. So I told him that I would just give him the story."
He added, "The story I gave him is about an IAS officer, who is trying to change the system. That had a much different and a grounded setting." The director referenced to Rajkummar Rao's Newton (2017), while describing his story for Game Changer. He described his story as one, which doesn't have the indie movie elements of Newton (2017), but has some more action to it.
He added, "It also had a gangster element in it. I wrote it in Tamil, so it is about a person from Madurai, so it had the elements of a Madurai gangster story."
Karthik went on to say, "But I think when it is being done with a big budget for a big star like Ram Charan sir, with Shankar sir making it, I think the entire story dynamics changed. But I am always happy that somebody legendary like Shankar sir is taking my story and doing it. I was always happy about that."
Game Changer (2025), also starred Kiara Advani, Anjali, SJ Suryah, Samuthirakani, Srikanth Meka, Jayaram, and Naveen Chandra, among others.
Meanwhile Karthik Subbaraj's Dorothy, recently began streaming on Netflix.
