Ratsasan (2018)

Ratsasan 2018: a filmmaker turned cop

Ratsasan 2018 is a Tamil psychological thriller written and directed by Ram Kumar, released on 5 October 2018. Its starting point is a reversal many thrillers do not try: the hero, Arun Kumar, is not a cop by ambition. He wants to be a director, specifically one who makes a film about a deranged killer, and he is turned away by producer after producer. Family pressure steers him into the police force instead, and the genre knowledge he gathered as a film enthusiast then collides with real crime. Sources describe the case that follows as a string of brutal killings of young girls, which he starts to link to one offender.

We have not watched the film, so this preview relies on published credits and plot descriptions, and we avoid spoilers. If you are searching for the Ratsasan 2018 cast, release date or streaming platform, the sections below cover what we could confirm.

Cast, crew and reputation

Vishnu Vishal plays SI Arun Kumar, with Amala Paul as Vijayalakshmi. Saravanan, Kaali Venkat, Munishkanth, Vinodhini and Abhirami are among the supporting names, and Radha Ravi is credited with a cameo. Music and background score are by Ghibran, cinematography by P. V. Shankar and editing by San Lokesh. The producers are G. Dilli Babu and R. Sridhar, under the Axess Film Factory banner.

Wikipedia states that the film received critical acclaim on release, and it is one of the better-documented Tamil thrillers of the decade because it was later remade in other languages: Rakshasudu in Telugu (2019) and Cuttputlli in Hindi (2022). A remake is a useful signal that producers elsewhere saw a story worth adapting, though it tells you nothing about how any version compares. If you have seen a remake first, the Tamil original is where the idea started, and it may be interesting to compare how each handles the same premise.

Release date, runtime and where to watch

The theatrical release date is 5 October 2018. Sources disagree on running time: Wikipedia lists 152 minutes while another source we saw suggests around 170, so we have not put a runtime in our data. We did not find a current streaming platform in the sources we checked, and platform catalogues change often, so search the title in the apps you already use rather than relying on any single claim. A dark crime thriller of this kind carries mature subject matter, including violence against children, so it is not suitable for younger viewers or for anyone who finds that theme distressing. The certificate was not listed in the sources we read, so check the rating shown on the platform.