Keerthy Suresh: Baby John flop led her to Raftaar

Keerthy Suresh is not looking back at Baby John as a failure. The 2024 action thriller, which marked her Bollywood debut opposite Varun Dhawan, underperformed at the box office. But in an exclusive conversation with India Today, the 34-year-old actor said the film became a quiet audition for her next job.

From Baby John to Raftaar

Keerthy said every film is made with the hope that it works, but not every film lands the way its team expects. Baby John, she explained, was one of those projects. She does not call it a mistake or a regret.

“What got me Raftaar was actually Baby John,” she told India Today.

The connection was direct. During script readings for Raftaar, she learnt that Rajkummar Rao had been undecided about whom to cast. He watched Baby John, then called her himself. The Hindi debut that did not work commercially had made the introduction for the film that came next.

The same road from Thodari to Mahanati

For Keerthy, this is a pattern she has seen before. Her Tamil film Thodari, co-starring Dhanush, drew severe trolling and criticism. She did not respond to it then, and she still avoids rewatching the film.

The next offer, however, was Mahanati. Keerthy admitted she was frightened to play the legendary Savitri. Director Nag Ashwin trusted her without hesitation. Months into the shoot, she asked him why. He pointed back to Thodari, the flop that had brought her so much trolling.

In a song filmed on a moving train, he had seen a close-up of her eyes. That glance, he told her, was where he saw Savitri amma.

Why that matters for fans

The detail pulls back the curtain on how casting can actually work. A film’s weekend numbers are public, but its private value may be much longer-lived. For actors, one visible performance can travel further than the box office suggests. For fans, it is a reminder that a project written off by the audience can still matter inside the industry.

• The box office result is not the same as the film’s value to a performer’s career.
• Casting decisions can begin months later, when someone watches an older role.
• A comfortable set can create a performance that carries into the next job.

What came out of Baby John

Despite the commercial result, Keerthy described Baby John as one of the most comfortable sets she has ever been on. Producers Atlee and Priya were close friends, the cinematographer Kiran and director Kalees were familiar, and everyone on set spoke Tamil. She joked that it almost felt like Varun Dhawan was making his Tamil debut.

Baby John is a 2024 action thriller about a former police officer who fakes his death to protect his daughter from a dangerous politician. It also starred Wamiqa Gabbi and Jackie Shroff.

Source: India Today