Assault Sethu

Assault Sethu
First appearance	Jigarthanda 2014
Last appearance	Jigarthanda DoubleX 2023
Created by	Karthik Subbaraj
Portrayed by	Bobby Simha Vijay Sethupathi (young)
In-universe information
Occupation	Gangster, actor
Spouse	Ganga

Assault Sethu (/seɪθu/) is the main antagonist of the 2014 Indian Tamil-language film Jigarthanda, created by its director/writer Karthik Subbaraj and portrayed primarily by Bobby Simha. The character is a gangster based in Madurai, Tamil Nadu who later becomes an actor after meeting Karthik Subramani, an aspiring film director. It became Simha's breakthrough role, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Development

While creating the character of Sethu for the film Jigarthanda (2014), director/writer Karthik Subbaraj was inspired by Rajinikanth's villainous roles in his early career, especially that in 16 Vayathinile (1977). Karthik joked that Sethu was similar to himself as, during the time he spent researching about crime in Madurai, where the character is based, he became close to a gangster himself. Sethu was named after Vijay Sethupathi, who Karthik initially wanted to cast. The "Assault" prefix comes from Madurai slang which means "to do things with ease". Numerous actors were approached for the role, including Raghava Lawrence, R. Parthiban, R. Madhavan, Pasupathy and Kishore, before Bobby Simha was finalised. Karthik initially rejected Simha's request to play Sethu as he wanted him to play Siddharth's role Karthik, but eventually accepted after Simha established himself through Neram and Soodhu Kavvum (both 2013). Sethupathi went on to portray a younger version of the character. To prepare for his role, Simha interacted with actual gangsters who were in prison. Sethu also appears as an infant in the prequel Jigarthanda DoubleX (2023).

Character biography

Sethu was a regular kid who lived in Madurai with his adopted mother Paingilli after his biological parents Alliyus "Alliyan" Caesar and Malaiarasi were killed when he was an infant by a corrupt police officer Rathna Kumar and his subordinates as they were trying to protect their tribe. Sethu was rescued by his father's friend Kiruban and his wife Paingalli who was part of the tribe. Since then, Paingilli raised Sethu as her own and from a young age Sethu was known to be a brash kid who loved to pick a fight with his classmates to prove himself. His life changed when his best friend Rasu was almost beaten by his lover's brother and his friends but Sethu intervenes and rescues his friend, this catches the eyes of a thug named Murugan who was a friend of the lover's brother and tries to kill Sethu in revenge but Sethu scars him and is arrested. However Murugan's brother Shanmugam releases him and warns him to never cross in their way and that if he does so, he will personally murder him. Sethu knowing that Shanmugam will likely kill him stabs both Shanmugam and Murugan to death and manages to escape with the help of Rasu. Karthik Subramani, an aspiring film director, visits Sundar, a film producer who suggests making a gangster film. Karthik decides to document the life of "Assault" Sethu, who is now a gangster based in Madurai along with Rasu who now works for Sethu and make a screenplay out of it. Karthik travels to Madurai and enlists the help of a college friend Oorani to conduct surveillance on Sethu and his men. To get closer to Sethu, Karthik also puts up an act of reciprocating the love of Kayalvizhi, whose mother cooks for Sethu. Amdist this, Sethu learns from his associate Ponram that one of his henchmen is a spy working for a rival gang and is later almost shot dead by a member of a rival gang who mistakenly kills another person thinking it is Sethu. He is then captured by Sethu's gang and Sethu tries to extract information from him to no avail as Rasu stabs him to death after a brief interrogation. Karthik and Oorni eventually arouse the suspicion of Rasu and Sethu's other right-hand men Senthil after several incidents in which they tried to befriend them in order to learn more about Sethu, and they put the underling Soundar to watch them. Karthik and Oorni eventually manage to befriend Soundar and Karthik even plants a wireless microphone in a music player and lends it to Soundar, who is busted as a mole for an opposing gang and is shot dead by Sethu who also manages to kill the rival gang's leader Sekar through the help of Ponram. He finds the microphone and locates Karthik and Oorani. Karthik confesses that he was planning to make a film about Sethu. Enamoured by the prospect of being the subject of a film, Sethu initiates Karthik and Oorani into his gang. Sethu and his gang take Karthik along for their criminal activities, and Karthik documents everything. When he is ready to leave Madurai to work on the screenplay, Kayal discovers that Karthik used her for information. During a send-off party for Karthik, a vengeful Kayal remarks that Sethu should play himself in the film. He listens and threatens Karthik to direct the film with Sethu playing himself on screen. Karthik tries to flee from Madurai but is caught by Sethu's gang. They also kidnap Sundar and force both men to make the film. Karthik soon learns that Sethu and his men cannot act in front of a camera. He hires acting coach Muthu to train them and Oorani who also wanted to act in the movie, to no avail even though Muthu sees a glimpse of potential in Sethu and trains him to act through the production of the A.Kumar movie.

After production of the film, A. Kumar, is wrapped, Sethu and his men create great fanfare for its release. During the first showing, however, Sethu is shocked. Realising that a serious gangster film featuring Sethu would not succeed, Karthik had surreptitiously changed the story into a comedy. The film was edited and dubbed in a way that shows Sethu as a man who achieves everything in life by crying. The film's "A" initial is revealed to stand for Azhuguni (Crybaby), not Assault. The audience laughs all throughout the film at Sethu's expense. Enraged, Sethu searches for Karthik, who, with the rest of the crew, has gone into hiding. While searching for them, Sethu realizes that the fear that people have for him does not equal respect. He finds that through Soundar's wife and his daughter who make him realize that by making people laugh through his film, he has earned true respect when he and his gang went to pay respect to Ponram's deceased father who was once a gangster like Sethu. For example, Paingilli, who has never spoken to him since he became a gangster, speaks to Sethu again after seeing the film. Sethu and his gang eventually meet Karthik and Oorani by accident, as they were en route to deliver recordings of the former's boastful confessions to the police. Sethu has one of his gang members Kasi hold Oorani whilst having Rasu pour petrol over Karthik, intending to burn him himself the same way he had killed a reporter earlier in the movie, but changes his mind and forgives Karthik, who chooses to put Sethu's past behind him and let him seek a new life. Years later, Karthik, now an experienced director, has started to use Sethu's gang to bully Vijay Sethupathi for acting in his new film titled Jigarthanda, as Kayal, now Karthik's wife, is a fan of him. Elsewhere, Sethu is a full-time actor who is currently acting in a film made by director Vetrimaaran with coach Muthu helping him again. Sethu has also married Soundar's wife Ganga, and dotes on her daughter.

Reception

Simha won the National Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Sethu.

Legacy

Sethu became one of Simha's most identifiable roles, and people would often remember him by that name. The character was portrayed by P. Ravi Shankar in Jigarthanda's Kannada remake of the same name (2016) renamed Assault Arumuga, by Varun Tej in the Telugu remake Gaddalakonda Ganesh (2019) renamed as the title character, and by Akshay Kumar in the Hindi remake Bachchhan Paandey (2022) as the title character. Simha later established a production company named Assault Productions as an homage to Sethu. His character Burma Sethu in the Telugu film Disco Raja (2020) was named after his Jigarthanda role.