<p>In 2010 after years of research, scientist K. Vaseegaran creates an named with the help of his assistants, Siva and Ravi, to commission it into the . Chitti helps Sana, Vaseegaran’s girlfriend, cheat on her examination, then saves her from being assaulted by a group of thugs. Vaseegaran’s mentor, Bohra, is secretly contracted to create similar robots for a terrorist organisation but so far has been unsuccessful. Threatened with death if he fails to meet the deadline, Bohra seeks the details of Chitti’s , intending to program his robots correctly. Vaseegaran prepares Chitti for an evaluation by the Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (AIRD) Institute, headed by Bohra. During the evaluation, Chitti nearly stabs Vaseegaran at Bohra’s command, which convinces the evaluation committee that the robot is a liability and . Hoping to prove Bohra wrong, Vaseegaran deploys Chitti to save people from a burning building but fails when Chitti saves a girl bathing but flees being ashamed filmed naked on TV and is run over a truck and dies. Vaseegaran requests and pleads Bohra for one month to modify Chitti’s neural schema to enable it to understand human behaviour and emotions to which Bohra agrees.When Vaseegaan is explaining to Chitti about sentience and life, Chitti asks if he too is sentient, consequently being struck by lightening, severely damaging him, after which Vaseegaran adds a Hormone-Stimulating system to somehow construct human emotions into Chitti. While nearing the deadline, Vaseegaran insults Chitti, who becomes angry with Vaseegaran, demonstrating to him that it can manifest emotions.implying that the lightning came from a higher power to grant Chitti sentience Chitti uses Sana’s textbooks and an ancient delivery method to help Sana’s sister Latha’s childbirth complication. Bohra congratulates Vaseegaran and belatedly lets Chitti pass the AIRD evaluation, but also warns him that real problems start from now. Chitti develops romantic feelings for Sana after she congratulates Chitti by kissing it. Later, at Sana’s birthday party, Chitti seduces her while dancing and is confronted by Vaseegaran and Sana, to whom it confesses its love towards her. Vaseegaran reprimands Chitti, while Sana explains that they can only be friends. Chitti is saddened by her rejection, until Bohra convinces it to fight for its love for Sana, at Vaseegaran’s expense. Saddened by her rejection, Chitti deliberately fails an evaluation conducted by the Indian Army. Humiliated, Vaseegaran chops Chitti into pieces, which Siva and Ravi dump into a landfill site. Bohra visits the site to retrieve Chitti, which has crudely reassembled itself. He reconstructs Chitti with the help of Siva and Ravi and then Bohra embeds a red chip which converts him into a ruthless killer. When Siva and Ravi ask Bohra why he is doing this to Chitti, Bohra reveals his true intentions to them that he is doing this to earn money through his business and defame Vaseegaran, scaring them. Chitti gatecrashes Vaseegaran and Sana’s wedding, injures Vaseegaran, kidnaps Sana, and creates replicas of itself using Bohra’s robots. Bohra tries to stop Chitti, who kills him. Using its robot army, Chitti occupies AIRD. After informing Sana that it has acquired the human ability to reproduce, Chitti wishes to marry her so that a machine and a human being can give birth to a preprogrammed child, but Sana refuses. It eventually finds Vaseegaran, who entered AIRD to stop it, and nearly kills him before the police appear. The ensuing battle between Chitti’s robot army and the police personnel leads to many casualties. Vaseegaran eventually captures Chitti using a magnetic wall and accesses its internal control panel, whereby he instructs all the other robots to self-destruct, and removes Chitti’s red chip. In a court hearing, Vaseegaran is sentenced to death for the casualties caused by the robot army, but Chitti explains that Bohra is the culprit and shows the court video footage of him installing the red chip. The court accepts the video as evidence and drops all charges on Vaseegaran but orders Chitti to be dismantled. Left with no choice and heartbroken, Vaseegaran tells Chitti to dismantle itself. Chitti does so while telling a story and apologising to Sana and Vaseegaran for causing so much pain to them and receives their forgiveness as well as wishing Latha’s son all the best for future. 20 years later in 2030, Chitti has become a museum exhibit. A curious school student asks her guide why it was dismantled, to which Chitti responds that it started thinking. I thought that playing Chitti the robot would be very difficult. He is a machine. His movements should not be like a human being’s. We had to draw a line. If I deviated even slightly, Shankar would point it out and say I was being too human. After four to five days of shooting, we found a rhythm. R1 and R2, a pair of robots that work in Vaseegaran’s lab, are played by Kunju Shankar and Iyyappan, respectively. Rajan, uncredited, plays a professor. In 1996, following the release of , approached and pitched three storylines to to consider for his next venture. This included scripts which would later become (2007), (2010) and (2015). Rajinikanth was sceptical and refused all three scripts at the time. Following the completion of his first directorial venture in Hindi, (2001), Shankar announced his next project, , which was to feature and . The film was to be produced by the now-defunct company , a division of . The film was reported to be a futuristic set in Chennai in around 2200 or 3000. Despite the completion of a photoshoot featuring Haasan and Zinta, the project was shelved as a result of scheduling conflicts with Haasan. Shankar consequently started work on (2003). After , Shankar began work on his next feature starring , which was initially reported by to be revived, but was later revealed as (2005). One month post the release of in June 2007, he approached for the lead in . Shankar had cast in the lead opposite him. Khan was about to produce it under his own banner, , but in October the same year the project was officially aborted due to creative differences between him and Shankar. The project was revived in January 2008 with and the -based production company willing to produce the film. The state government of granted tax exemptions for films titled in , resulting in the new production being renamed . While was originally assigned to write the dialogue for the film, took over after Sujatha’s death in February 2008. In December 2008, Eros International withdrew from funding the project after financial difficulties caused by the box-office failure of (2008) and (2008), with the subsequent departure of Ayngaran International, which struggled during the . The film’s production and release rights were sold to . In January 2008, Rajinikanth accepted the lead role in the film for a salary of 450 million ( ). Shankar rewrote the original script to suit Rajinikanth’s acting style. Although was Shankar’s original choice for the female lead in 2001, she declined it owing to a busy schedule and was replaced by Zinta. When Shankar revived the project with Rajinikanth, contenders for the part included , and Rai, who was ultimately selected and paid 60 million. Rai’s voice was dubbed by . Several actors were considered for the role of Professor Bohra, including , , and British actor , but it was who eventually received it, making his first film in Tamil. Dubbing for Denzongpa was provided by Kadhir. Comedians and were cast to portray Vaseegaran’s assistants Siva and Ravi respectively. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman. , and Madhan Karky authored the lyrics for the songs. was signed on to be an assistant director after he approached Shankar and helped him find the location for Rajinikanth’s house in the film. Arul and Manoj, uncredited, worked as body doubles for both the Vaseegaran and Chitti characters. Also working as assistant directors were , Shree and Karthik G. Krish. , in addition to being the film’s art director, made a guest appearance as Shah, an interpreter between Bohra and the terrorist organisation. was hired as the cinematographer after , and were considered. was the film’s editor. , known for his work in and the films, was selected to be the stunt co-ordinator, while , a visual effects studio based in the United States, were in charge of the prosthetic make-up and animatronics in the film. -based film technical company, , were responsible for the . The film’s was done by Rekha Haricharan. and Mary E. Vogt were chosen to design the film’s costumes. Fifty-seven costumes were used for Rai, including a “Mexican tribal” look that she sported during the filming of the ” ” segment. According to make-up artist , no prosthetics were used for Rajinikanth to avoid bothering him by withholding his time on set. Additional make-up was by Vance Hartwell, an employee of Legacy Effects. The visual appearance of Chitti was based on the . For Chitti’s “villain robot” look, its hair was spiked and brown coloured lenses were used for its eyes, whereas for its “good robot” look, green coloured lenses were used. The wig used for Chitti’s “villain robot” look had a silver streak in the middle, made out of hair, while its leather jacket was designed by Vogt. To make Vaseegaran look mature, the team made Rajinikanth sport an . Suits made of copper were used for Chitti’s costumes. For Sabu Cyril’s sets, Shankar required approximately twice as much studio floor space as for his previous film. After rejecting for technical reasons, producer, , took six months to set up three air-conditioned studio floors on land in owned by Sun TV Network. Filming began on 15 February 2008 at in Chennai. After the initial stages of filming, Shankar and Rathnavelu toured the world for three weeks, scouting for exotic filming locations. They visited Austria, Germany, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, looking for a backdrop to shoot the “Kilimanjaro” and “Kadhal Anukkal” segments, eventually deciding on Peru and Brazil. “Kilimanjaro” was filmed at the ruins of the city of in Peru, with some 100 Brazilian extras. It was choreographed by and supervised by Fernando Astete, director of the Machu Picchu archaeological park. “Kadhal Anukkal” was filmed in in northeastern Brazil. The filming for Chitti’s introduction to the international robotics conference was completed in December 2008 at and , where more than 400 students were used as extras. Further footage was shot over five days at the on the car carrier, . An action sequence where Chitti saves Sana from thugs was filmed in , under the supervision of the action choreographer . Scenes featuring Rajinikanth as Chitti were captured over five days at the in Chennai. Sabu Cyril told Uma Kannan of that the sets for the climax sequence, which was filmed at , consisted of a tar road and glass buildings which rose to 65 feet (20 m), and that , reported to have cost 50 million, were also used to design the sets. The set for “Arima Arima”, a sequence choreographed by , was designed and constructed by Cyril at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. Filming of the number took place over 22 days in April 2009. Junior artists were employed by Rathnavelu to wear masks of Rajinikanth. For the sequence entitled “Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam”, choreographed by and featuring Rai and Rajinikanth as Chitti, three different sets were used: one of copper, one of gold and one in silver. The musical number, which was filmed in AVM Studios for eight days, was the last portion of the film’s principal photography. D’Souza incorporated the style of , but encountered difficulties in performing the dance movements in tandem with the robot, and with the restrictions created by the rigid costumes. Principal photography ended on 7 July 2010. Impressed with the film’s script, became the visual effects supervisor in December 2007. He asked Shankar to increase the filming schedules by six months to include pre-production requirements. Both Mohan and Shankar visited several visual effects companies, including the New Zealand–based and the United States–based , and before partnering with Legacy Effects. The original Eros-Ayngaran visual effects budget was 700 million, but after Sun Pictures took over production, it was significantly reduced to 200 million. As a result, the visual effects team had to omit and alter some sequences, making Chitti wear sunglasses for most of the film to reduce the cost and difficulty of animating his eyes. After a series of tests, including a scene in which Chitti jumps on a train to save Sana, Mohan eventually decided to use the technique in 40 out of the 60 visual effects scenes featured in the film, consisting of 2,000 takes. Further previsualisation supervision was conducted by P. C. Sanath of Firefly Creative Studios, a visual effects company based in . were constructed using 3D animation programs for every scene in the film and were shot from different angles. In an interview with Malathi Rangarajan of , Mohan said all the pre-production work took one-and-a-half years to complete. Rathnavelu used the camera and also wrote a 1,600-page manual, in which he listed all the possible angles from where he could film the characters Rajinikanth played. Legacy Effects and the Hong Kong–based visual effects companies Kinomotive Studios and Menfond Electronics took responsibility for the film’s work. To create the robots with Rajinikanth’s appearance, a complete scan of his face in 3D digital format in all possible lighting conditions was conducted using the Doom Light Stage, so that his face could be replicated on the . The technique, according to Shankar, was previously used in (2008). The robot Chitti featured in the film was a mannequin made by a Legacy Effects team of 100 technicians in Los Angeles. For every robotic mannequin used, six puppeteers were employed to control the mannequin’s movements. focuses on the battle between man and machine. Despite Shankar’s claim that was a purely original idea, it has been compared to ‘s 1818 novel , owing to the similar personae of Chitti and , both of whom turn against their respective creators. K. Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake, in their book , noted the similarity between the two works, arguing that Chitti was “manipulated by Bohra to become a Frankenstein-like figure”. Writing for , Genevieve Koski observed, “The plot of is essentially via ‘s .” Director and film critic called “a superhero film, a sci-fi adventure, a triangular love story with a hint of the “, while remarking that similarities to (1984) were “more than obvious. Not just visually—where we see the Superstar with one human eye and one scarred metallic eye but also intentionally spelt out when the bad robot announces that he has created Terminators.” Kamath compared two of the film’s robots to and , from the film series, which was referenced in when Vaseegaran refers to one of his creations as “R2”. The film was noted to have similarities with the 2002 film which had its lead actor playing three roles – one of which was a scientist and another was a humanoid robot invented by that scientist which falls in love with the girlfriend of his creator. Although Shankar initially claimed that would be made for all audiences, including those lacking , the film is influenced by and makes references to many scientific principles relating to the fields of engineering, computer science and robotics, including and Asimov’s laws of robotics. Visual references are made to the (2005) and (2005). In his book , Sujith Kumar Parayil notes the similarities between Kalabhavan Mani’s role in the film to the one Mani played in the film (1996). Chitti taking revenge by duplicating himself and combining his duplicates together to form larger beings was compared to , in and (both 2003), and Indian mythology. The film marked the debut of Rahman’s daughter as a playback singer. The soundtrack album to was released on 31 July 2010. The original Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions were released by , while the dubbed Hindi version was released by . Think Music purchased the release rights of the original Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions of the album for 70 million. The album of the film’s dubbed Telugu version, , was released on 6 August 2010, while its dubbed Hindi version, , was released on 14 August 2010. After the second day of release, the album’s original Tamil version reached the number one position in the Top 10 World Albums chart on , making it the first Tamil album to do so. The Tamil album was officially released on 31 July 2010 with a promotional event held at the in , Malaysia. Co-hosted by and , the event was attended by most of the film’s cast and crew members. Other invited guests were , , , , , , , and , , and . Furthermore, , , and were part of stage performances. The release event of the Telugu version, titled , was held in on 6 August 2010, which was attended by , , , , , and . The version, titled , was released by Venus on 14 August 2010, in a function held in . The event was attended by , and , along with the crew of the film. was released on 1 October 2010. The film was dubbed and released in Hindi as and in Telugu as and later in Kannada as . The film was released in 2,250 theatres worldwide, including 500 theatres in Tamil Nadu, 350 theatres in , 128 theatres in , 23 theatres in , and 750 theatres in North India. With an estimated budget of 1.32—1.62 billion, was up to that point, surpassing the Hindi film (2009), which was filmed on a budget of 750 million. became the first Tamil film to be released at the , a theatre complex in , and it was screened at the 21st , held in the United Kingdom in 2011. Additionally, a version of the film, edited to a running length of two hours, was released in Japan in May 2012, and later screened at the 24th , where it won a special award under the section “Winds of Asia–Middle East”. By public demand, the original, unedited version was later released in that country. The first poster for was released on 8 September 2008. The film’s trailer was released on 11 September 2010, at the theatre complex in Chennai. To promote , organised a festival from 25 September 2010 until its release date, in which they screened popular films of Rajinikanth at the company’s theatre in . In Coimbatore, the printed 100,000 post cards advertising the film. Sun Pictures invested a total of 500 million on promotional activities. Advance bookings for the film began two weeks before the release date in the United States. In the neighbourhood in New York, tickets were sold out within ten minutes of going on sale. In Kerala the distribution rights were sold for 50 million, while in Karnataka they were sold for 100 million. The distribution rights in Mumbai were sold to Shringar Films. In the United Kingdom, was released by Ayngaran International, while was released by . DVD marketing in India was handled by ; Ayngaran International released the two-DVD set of the film in early 2011. ASTPL, an Indian software developer, also released a based on the film, titled . The novelist Aarur Thamizhnadan made a complaint with the against the filmmakers in November 2010, stating that the producers plagiarised his 1996 novel . Thamizhnadan demanded 10 million from the director and producers for damages and filed a case against Kalanithi Maran. In June 2011, the dismissed the case after a petition filed by Maran denying the allegation was approved. The case was dismissed by courts in June 2023. In February 2025, Shankar’s assets amounting to approximately ₹10 crore were attached to the case by the for violating Section 63 of the . The daily newspaper reported that grossed 58 crore from all versions in the opening weekend, and stated it netted 117 crore by the end of its opening week. According to a February 2015 report by the , the film has grossed ₹256 crore worldwide in its lifetime. stated in July 2015 that the film grossed ₹290 crore from both its original and its dubbed versions. became the top-earning Indian film of 2010 ahead of and and became the highest-grossing Tamil film at that point. It is currently . estimated that netted 195 crore across India with the Tamil version netting 120 crore, the Telugu version netting 53 crore and the Hindi version netting 22 crore. The website estimated the overseas earnings of the film (including its dubbed versions) at approximately $12 million as of November 2010 with the Tamil version grossing $11 million and the remaining $1 million coming in from the Telugu and Hindi versions. collected 108 crore in Tamil Nadu alone, a record it held for seven years before being surpassed by (2017), which grossed 152.6 crore. In Japan, the film grossed $407,438, including $370,697 for the Hindi version and $36,741 for the Tamil version. On the website , 77% of 13 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6/10. received positive reviews from critics in India, with praise particularly directed at Rathnavelu’s cinematography, Cyril’s art direction, Srinivas Mohan’s visual effects and Rajinikanth’s performance as Chitti. Aniruddha Guha of gave the film a rating of four out of five stars and believed it had the “best special effects ever seen in a Tamil film” and that it was “one of the most entertaining Tamil films—across all languages—ever made.” Both of and Kaveree Bamzai of rated the film four out of five stars. Kazmi called it “the perfect getaway film”. Bamzai praised Rajinikanth’s acting in the film and said, “Rajni tells us why robot sapiens are superior to homo sapiens”. Cable Shankar of magazine praised the technical aspects, music, stunts and direction while calling Chitti’s character attracts more attention than Vaseegaran. He also stated that first half was interesting using Chitti’s character but the second half had uninteresting sequences which proves to be a obstacle to the screenplay yet they manage to compensate with graphics in the film’s climax and concluded saying little bit of science fiction + usual emotions + many Rajinis + logic = Enthiran. Both of and Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave a rating of three-and-a-half stars out of five. Chopra criticised the film’s portions in the second half, describing them as “needlessly stretched and cacophonous”, but concluded her review by saying, ” rides on Rajinikanth’s shoulders and he never stoops under the burden. Aided by snazzy clothes, make-up and special effects, he makes Chitti endearing.” Srinivasan, however, said that Shankar “strikes the balance between science fiction and masala quotient.” She concluded that, “Whichever way you look at it, [ ] is one of those rare films that give you just enough material to pull you in, and enjoy yourself.” of gave a rating of three out of five stars and said, “In the end, it’s the fantastic special effects and an inspired performance from Rajnikant [ ] that keeps the film fresh.” , writing for , rated it three stars and said, “Leave aside jokes running on the Internet. This film, just a few feet too long, is fine entertainment by itself.” Malini Mannath of noted for having “An engaging script, brilliant special effects, and a debonair hero who still carries his charisma effortlessly.” Karthik Subramanian of observed that actors “tend to get lost in special effects movies.” He believed it was not the case in : “Rajinikanth and [Aishwarya Rai] carry the movie on their shoulders, and considering the fact that much of the acting must have been in front of green screens, one has to say that nothing looks artificial right through.” In contrast, Gautaman Bhaskaran of rated it two out of five stars, writing that “Shankar’s work slips into a loud, overdramatic and exaggerated mess”. Lisa Tsering from said, “Rajinikanth is such a badass that is .” She praised the filming locations, especially the “Kilimanjaro” song sequence, but criticised the length of the film’s climax portions. Genevieve Koski from believed that was “pretty good” and concluded that “if you prefer elaborate costumes and dance music mixed in with your killer-robot action, expect to enjoy up to an hour of .” Marc Savlov of called “the best apocalyptic sci-fi-romcom-melodrama-dance-off date movie of the year.” Roger Moore, writing for the , gave a mixed review, evaluating it as a “melodramatic kitschy Indian musical about a robot built for national defense but who discovers his human side.” Following the film’s screening at the , American film director praised originality. Conversely, of believed that Shankar “riffs on everything” from to , but suggested that the film was an “overwhelming mash-up of American-style, f/x-driven sci-fi spectacle and a Bollywood musical.” At the , won for and . It won in three categories at the for , and Best Costume Design. At the , it was nominated in fourteen categories and won in seven, including and for Rajinikanth, and . At the , the film won awards under the and Spectacular Cutting Edge Technology categories. However, the film missed out on being the since the jury noted out that it had sequences lifted from four American films. was the only Tamil film featured on the (IMDb) list of the 50 best films of 2010. The film was also included as a case study in a postgraduate elective course of the , “Contemporary Film Industry: A Business Perspective”. Scenes from , particularly one known as the “Black Sheep” scene, have been parodied in subsequent films, including (2011), (2011), (2013), (2013), (2015) with the same director, (2023), as well as in the Telugu films (2011), (2011), and (2011). In the film, Chitti often introduces himself by stating the of his , which is 1 terahertz (10 ), and his limit, which is 1 zettabyte (10 ). This introduction dialogue, which is spoken by Chitti as “Hi, I’m Chitti, speed 1 terahertz, memory 1 zettabyte” became popular. Rajinikanth featured in a cameo role as Chitti in the science-fiction film (2011). On Rajinikanth’s 64th birthday, an agency named Minimal Kollywood Posters designed posters of Rajinikanth’s films, in which the characters from the franchise are dressed as Rajinikanth. The digital art was hand drawn on a digital pad by Gautham Raj. One of the posters depicted a mutated Minion, reminiscent of Chitti’s “villain robot” look in . In March 2015, Kamath, in his review of the science fiction film , compared its eponymous lead character to Chitti in terms of learning human emotions. While promoting in India, co-director said that the sequence in where numerous clones of Chitti come together to form a giant python inspired a similar scene in s predecessor (2015) where the titular antagonist, and his clones come together to form a gigantic version of himself, but that the scene was cut from the final version of the film to accommodate its runtime. In September 2015, writer announced that the pre-production stage of a standalone sequel to was “going on in full swing” and that principal photography would commence once Rajinikanth finished filming for , by the end of that year. would be the cinematographer and A. R. Rahman would return as music director, while Muthuraj would handle the art direction. Titled , the film entered production in December 2015 and was released worldwide on 29 November 2018. Rajinikanth reprised his roles as Vaseegaran and Chitti, with the additional cast played by and .</p>