Dorothy, the Tamil film gained its pre-release momentum with its world premier at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Though the lead actors Rishikanth and Sanath were celebrated with a standing ovation by an international audience, they received a rude shock when the film released two weeks later in India. The negative propaganda on the crux of the film was pasted all over social media. This sparked the interest of the traditional "theatre audience".

Karthik Subbaraj and Suriya have been swimming the shallow waters of the box office ocean since the pandemic.