Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum

After his debut film Soodhu Kavvum received critical and commercial accolades, Nalan Kumarasamy started penning the script for his second film under the title Eskimo Kadhal, which is touted to be an "out-and-out romantic one", with C. V. Kumar who earlier produced Nalan's Soodhu Kavvum had bankrolled this film.[6] As the script demanded a prominent actor to play the male lead role, he narrated the script first to Suriya whom he gave nod to the project, after Suriya's interest in working with young filmmakers.[7] But he could not allot the dates due to his commitments with Lingusamy's Anjaan.[8] Further negotiations with Gautham Karthik became unsuccessful,[9] which resulted Nalan to put the project on held and started working on another film titled Kai Neelam,[10] a sequel to Soodhu Kavvum and also the second film in the Trilogy of Trick, which Nalan had curated.[11]

In a turn of events, Nalan shelved the project and began working on a remake of the Korean film My Dear Desperado for the same producers,[12] irrespective of the film being remade in Hindi as Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story.[13] Kumar paid ₹40 lakh (US$50,000) to acquire the Korean film's remake rights.[14] In April 2015, Vijay Sethupathi was confirmed to play the leading role in the film in his second collaboration with Kumarasamy after Soodhu Kavvum.[15] The project had a formal launch on the same month,[16] with the technical team of Soodhu Kavvum comprising music director Santhosh Narayanan, cinematographer Dinesh Krishnan and editor Leo John Paul being a part of the film and K. E. Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green was the co-producer.[17]

Nalan Kumarasamy initially wrote the script of this film (along with Kai Neelam) as a black comedy due to the success of Soodhu Kavvum.[6] However, within the completion of the first draft, many films based on black comedy released during the intermediate timeline. Nalan who does not want to repeat genres had shelved the project Kai Neelam,[12] as well as rewriting the script from the stratch owing to the long gap between his first and second film. He also noted that the film will have unique pattern as similar to Soodhu Kavvum and also there will be comic elements with stress on relationships.[18]

Initially the team approached Trisha to play the female lead, but the actress denied her presence in the film.[19] After multiple auditions for the female lead, Kumarasamy roped in Madonna Sebastian to play the role after she shot to fame with Premam.[20][2] She revealed that Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar (the sound designer duo who worked in Premam), who also became a part of Kumarasamy's project mentioned the name to the director, and she got to play the female lead during an audition.[21] She further added that her role is an out-of-comfort zone and expressive character, saying "I play a middle class girl looking for a job in the city and she meets the hero, played by Sethupathi, from the city, and the story goes on. I can’t reveal much about the film. But it will be a breezy entertainer." Madonna further added despite Premam becoming successful among the Tamil audience, she was not familiar with Tamil, so she took time to memorise the dialogues and perform on the set. Further stating "Initially I found speaking in Tamil a bit difficult. But now I am learning the language so that I can easily get enact my role".[22]

Principal photography for the film began in April 2015, with the first schedule being shot in Chennai for 20 days.[17] As of May 2015, the team had wrapped 50% of the shoot within 25 days while most of the film is set in Chennai.[23] The principal shooting of the film completed during July 2015,[24] and post-production process began soon after its completion.[25] While the film was developed under the title Eskimo Kadhal, in September 2015, the makers announced the film's title as Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum.[26][27]

The film opened to positive response from critics.[5] M. Suganth, editor-in-chief of The Times of India gave three-and-a-half out off five stars saying "The stylish nonchalance of Vijay Sethupathi and the earnestness of Madonna Sebastian complement each perfectly that we root for these characters to succeed".[41] Behindwoods gave three stars for the film and wrote "Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum is a whole new experience. At the minimum, it might just excite you or even go to the extent of making you jump out of joy".[42] Praising the performances of Vijay Sethupathi and Madonna Sebastian, with the writing, Sify reviewed the film as a "classy rom-com" giving three out of five stars for the film.[43]

Gauthaman Bhaskaran gave three stars in his review for Hindustan Times saying "though the film is often predictable and ponderous, there are some interesting shots that lift the narrative".[44] In his review for India Today, Kirubhakar Purushothaman gave three-and-a-half out of five stars and praised the performances of the actors along with the writing and filmmaking.[45] S. Saraswathi of Rediff gave three out of five stars saying "The best part is that, though the film revolves around Kathir and Yazhini, they are just small players in the larger story. With riveting performances by the lead actors, a delightful script and the magic wielded by of director Nalan Kumarasamy and composer Santhosh Narayanan, the film is a sure winner".[46]

Noted film critic Baradwaj Rangan in his review for The Hindu, praised Nalan Kumarasamy for "breaking the stereotypes of romance genre films in Tamil", saying that "Nalan isn't just reshaping the Kollywood romance here [...] He’s also reshaping the hero himself".[47] He further reviewed that "the Kathir-Yazhini scenes accrue weight towards the closing portions, so much so that we find ourselves completing their stories in our heads during the drive home."[47] Moviecrow gave a positive review saying "With a brilliant performance from Vijay Sethupathi, Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum is treat of a different kind from the team of Soodhu Kavvum".[48]

In its opening weekend, the film collected ₹7.45 crore (US$930,000) in Tamil Nadu from 327 screens, and ₹1.17 crore (US$150,000) crore from 264 shows in Chennai. Overall, it was the highest opening in Vijay Sethupathi's career.[49][40] It continued its number one position at the Chennai city box office making it a total of ₹2.58 crore (US$320,000) in its first week.[50]

The film released in more than 47 theatres in North America and grossed $41,000 on its first day.[51] In the United Kingdom, the film collected ₹1.59 crore (US$200,000) across 23 screens. In Australia, it earned ₹1.71 crore (US$210,000) and in Malaysia, ₹0.86 crore (US$110,000).[52]