Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Anupama Chopra sits down with Suriya and Jyotika for Cover Star on The Hollywood Reporter India, in their first shoot together in two decades and weeks ahead of their twentieth wedding anniversary in September. The two look back on a year that has been remarkable for both of them — Jyotika's turn as courtroom stenographer Sarika Rawat in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's System, and Suriya's biggest blockbuster yet in RJ Balaji's Karuppu — and on what nearly thirty years each in the industry has taught them about the craft. They describe the debates that run at home about what is working on screen and what isn't, why he layers and engineers a performance while she refuses to prepare and simply surrenders to the moment, and why he still finds it extraordinary that she can emote truthfully in a language that isn't her mother tongue. Jyotika breaks down the shift in her eyes in the scene that stayed with viewers in System, and Suriya recalls being pulled from Vishwanath and Sons back to Chennai to shoot Karuppu's climax in two days, praying to the Karuppasamy statue standing behind the camera and drawing on YouTube footage of villagers in trance to find the character's fierceness.
The conversation turns to the near-derailed release of Karuppu, the additional loans Suriya took on at the last minute, and Jyotika's decision to back him through it as a family. She talks about the equality she believes has to be innate in a man rather than learned, and the two reflect on raising Diya and Dev between Chennai's simplicity and Bombay's noise — the kids' honesty, their unimpressed shrug at their parents' fame, and the documentary Diya made on her own about Bollywood's women gaffers. There is a long, funny stretch on wellness — Suriya on how the body's needs change every ten years, Jyotika on discovering strength training after forty and the trainer who told her to stop chasing weight loss and get stronger. They close with what's next: Suriya's Vishwanath and Sons with Venky Atluri, his home production with Jithu Madhavan, Jyotika's Excel Entertainment action thriller opposite Sunny Deol, the Rolex question that no Suriya interview escapes, and the on-screen reunion they are still waiting for someone to write.
#Suriya #Jyotika #VishwanathAndSons
00:00 Introduction
06:40 Their 2004 joint interview resurfaces
13:11 Shooting Karuppu's climax in two days
17:57 IMDb Watchlist Segment
19:55 Kaakha Kaakha and their favourite films
26:12 Keeping their children grounded at home
32:14 How fitness changes every ten years
37:44 Life without the VIP syndrome
Anupama Chopra sits down with Suriya and Jyotika for Cover Star on The Hollywood Reporter India, in their first shoot together in two decades and weeks ahead of their twentieth wedding anniversary in September. The two look back on a year that has been remarkable for both of them — Jyotika's turn as courtroom stenographer Sarika Rawat in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's System, and Suriya's biggest blockbuster yet in RJ Balaji's Karuppu — and on what nearly thirty years each in the industry has taught them about the craft. They describe the debates that run at home about what is working on screen and what isn't, why he layers and engineers a performance while she refuses to prepare and simply surrenders to the moment, and why he still finds it extraordinary that she can emote truthfully in a language that isn't her mother tongue. Jyotika breaks down the shift in her eyes in the scene that stayed with viewers in System, and Suriya recalls being pulled from Vishwanath and Sons back to Chennai to shoot Karuppu's climax in two days, praying to the Karuppasamy statue standing behind the camera and drawing on YouTube footage of villagers in trance to find the character's fierceness.
The conversation turns to the near-derailed release of Karuppu, the additional loans Suriya took on at the last minute, and Jyotika's decision to back him through it as a family. She talks about the equality she believes has to be innate in a man rather than learned, and the two reflect on raising Diya and Dev between Chennai's simplicity and Bombay's noise — the kids' honesty, their unimpressed shrug at their parents' fame, and the documentary Diya made on her own about Bollywood's women gaffers. There is a long, funny stretch on wellness — Suriya on how the body's needs change every ten years, Jyotika on discovering strength training after forty and the trainer who told her to stop chasing weight loss and get stronger. They close with what's next: Suriya's Vishwanath and Sons with Venky Atluri, his home production with Jithu Madhavan, Jyotika's Excel Entertainment action thriller opposite Sunny Deol, the Rolex question that no Suriya interview escapes, and the on-screen reunion they are still waiting for someone to write.
#Suriya #Jyotika #VishwanathAndSons
00:00 Introduction
06:40 Their 2004 joint interview resurfaces
13:11 Shooting Karuppu's climax in two days
17:57 IMDb Watchlist Segment
19:55 Kaakha Kaakha and their favourite films
26:12 Keeping their children grounded at home
32:14 How fitness changes every ten years
37:44 Life without the VIP syndrome
