Uttama Villain

Uttama Villain (transl. The Righteous Villain) is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Ramesh Aravind and written by Kamal Haasan, who co-produced the film with Chandrahasan under Raaj Kamal Films International and N. Lingusamy and N. Subash Chandrabose under Thirrupathi Brothers. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Hassan, K. Viswanath, K. Balachander (in his posthumous film), Jayaram, Andrea Jeremiah, Pooja Kumar, Nassar, Parvathy Thiruvothu and Urvashi in prominent roles. In the film, a leading superstar, who is affected by a brain tumour and having a short time to live, approaches his mentor to direct his final film—a folklore-ish comedy about a man who keeps cheating death and his role in saving a kingdom—while also trying to sort out his personal relationship with his estranged son and illegitimate daughter.

The film was officially announced in March 2014 with principal photography being commenced the same month and concluded by that August; filming took place in Chennai, Bengaluru, Madhya Pradesh, with a song sequence in Istanbul. The film's music is composed by Ghibran, with cinematography handled by Shamdat Sainudeen and editing done by Vijay Shankar.

Uttama Villain was scheduled to release on 1 May 2015 but was put on hold due to the disputes between the producers and financiers and released a day later after the issues were sorted out. It received positive reviews from critics and several awards from international film festivals, mainly for its music and other aspects. However, the film underperformed at the box office, which severely impacted Thirrupathi Brothers resulting in their ultimate halting of film production.