Chennai, Nov 9 (IANS): While actor Suriya's 'Jai Bhim' might have brought accolades and praises for everyone who worked on the film, it has brought a lot of brickbats to one person -- the man who played the antagonist in the film - Tamizh.

Yes, Tamizh, who plays the inspector in 'Jai Bhim', has come in for scathing criticism, not just from fans or the public but also from even friends, who have taken the film a little too seriously.

The criticism and the brickbats were so intense that Tamizh even went to the extent of posting a picture, with Lijo Mol Jose, who plays Irular woman 'Sengeni' and Manikandan, who plays her husband 'Rajakannu', from the film on his Twitter timeline with the comment, "With my younger brothers and sister. This is just a film."

Talking to IANS, Tamizh, who is a director himself, says, "People put out memes using my images and come down hard on me. I knew that this would be the kind of response for the character that I was playing. What is hurting is that even my friends, who know me well, have taken it to heart. Some of their wives have questioned them as to why they continue to be friends with a heartless person like Gurumurthy (the character he plays in the film)."

Tamizh's performance as a police officer was outstanding in the film. Interestingly, not many know that Tamizh was actually a police officer before turning a film director.

"I was a policeman for almost 12 years. I've served in several places, including Tihar. In 2014, I quit my job to enter films," says Tamizh, who is now busy directing his first Tamil film called 'Taanakaaran', featuring Vikram Prabhu in the lead.

The director says work on 'Taanakaaran' is progressing fast and that efforts were being made to get the film released in December.