Pizza (2012)

Interesting facts

Pizza is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language horror thriller film directed by Karthik Subbaraj, based on a story he co-wrote with Prasath Kumar and produced by C. V. Kumar under Thirukumaran Entertainment. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi and Remya Nambessan, with Naren, Jayakumar, Karunakaran, Simha and Pooja in supporting roles. It is about a pizza delivery man who goes to a customer's house, but becomes trapped there and begins witnessing paranormal activity.

Production

The short film director Karthik Subbaraj had initially intended for Jigarthanda to be his feature debut; he narrated the script to C. V. Kumar of Thirukumaran Entertainment, and though Kumar liked it, he declined to finance it due to budget constraints. Karthik then wrote a script for a low-budget film about a pizza delivery man stuck in a house, where the story could take place predominantly, and one of his friends agreed to finance it.

The makers initially approached Prasanna, and later Vaibhav, for the lead role; Vaibhav declined as he did not like the story. Vijay Sethupathi, who worked on several of Karthik's shorts, was eventually cast after Karthik approached him. The name of Sethupathi's character, Michael, was derived from a turkey that Karthik once witnessed responding to that name during scripting.

Karunakaran, who Karthik had known since his stint on the reality series Naalaya Iyakkunar, accepted the director's request to act in the film. This was the first collaboration between Karthik and Bobby Simha, who became a staple of the director's later films, while Nalan Kumarasamy, early in his career and Kavin, in his career debut, made brief appearances.

Pizza was made on a budget of ₹1.6 crore (equivalent to ₹3.3 crore or US$340,000 in 2026) and was shot in a single schedule around Chennai. Most of the horror sequences in the film take place in a dark bungalow. Karthik felt it would be "a little fake" to have furniture and actors visible to audiences in a dark place without electricity.

Because Sethupathi had to act alone for 40 minutes, he took a 10-day acting workshop with a Koothu-P-Pattarai artist, hoping to attain the right mood. While filming in Duraisamy Subway, Karunakaran injured his knee during the scene where Sethupathi's character pushes him. Filming was completed within 33 days. Pizza is the first Tamil film to feature 7.1 surround sound. The film was edited by Leo John Paul.

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