[6] The film stars Rajinikanth, Prabhu and Jyothika along with an ensemble supporting cast, including Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Nassar and Sheela.

It revolves around a woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder that affects a family, and a psychiatrist who intends to solve the case while risking his life.

Vettiyan however summoned high priests and powerful sorcerers from all over the country who were successful in sealing Chandramukhi's tormented spirit, keeping it confined in a room located in the palace's south-west corner and guarded by a 30 foot king cobra.

Saravanan also investigates other incidents such as the attempts to kill Senthil made by poisoning his coffee and pushing a glass fish tank off of a balcony to fall onto his head.

In order to prevent Chandramukhi to create ruckus during the function Kandasamy requests a well known spiritualist and exorcist named Ramachandra Acharya.

Kandaswamy and family prepares for Priya and Vishwanathan's wedding his sister Akhilandeshwari rejects the proposal saying the groom is a poor.

Ramachandra Acharya eventually intervenes the fight, and defends Saravanan by telling the family that he is not only a psychiatrist, but also a great disciple of Dr. Bradley from the States.

Saravanan, as advised by Ramachandra Acharya, informs Senthil and Viswanathan that Ganga suffers from split personality disorder following the traumatic death of her parents.

Ramachandra Acharya then blows smoke and ash on Ganga's face when she is given a torch to burn Saravanan, distracting her momentarily.

[11] Ramkumar telephoned Vasu, who was offering worship in a temple in Guruvayur at that time, informing him of Rajinikanth's wish to do Apthamitra in Tamil under his direction.

[27] Principal photography commenced on 24 October 2004 with a puja ceremony for the muhurat shot at Annai Illam, the residence of Sivaji Ganesan.

Ramkumar Ganesan said the filming would be finished by 15 February 2005, giving the crew two months to complete the post-production work, including visual effects.

[28] The first shooting schedule began two days later with a fight scene choreographed by Thalapathy Dinesh and filmed at Ramavaram in Chennai.

[31] According to Ramji, who helped the production unit look for locations for the song "Konjam Neram", Ramkumar Ganesan and Vasu chose Turkey, making Chandramukhi the first Tamil film to be shot there.

Chandramukhi was released in 37 theatres in Malaysia, 15 in Europe, nine in Sri Lanka, seven in the United States, four each in Canada and the Persian Gulf countries and two each in Australia and Singapore.

[49] The theatrical rights of the film in the Coimbatore and Nilgiris districts combined were sold to local theatre owners Tirupur Balu and Seenu for ₹2.25 crore (US$260,000).

[53] Writing for The Hindu, Malathi Rangarajan said, "As you watch the film you cannot but admire the ingenuity of writer-director P. Vasu in choosing a story that is bound to sell and at the same time helping Rajini maintain his image of an invincible hero", before concluding that, "The 'Mannan' team proves a winner again".

[55] A reviewer from The Times of India called the film "Entertaining, stylish, respectful of ritual, and always massively larger than life".

[56] Arun Ram of India Today said, "With Chandramukhi, Rajnikant revives his fading career and fortunes of Tamil cinema".

"[61] Karthiga Rukmanykanthan writing for Daily News Sri Lanka said, " ... the long anticipated delight Chandramukhi has made itself the box-office hit of the year".

The then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, director K. Balachander, film producer and owner of AVM Productions M. Saravanan,[65] Kamal Haasan and Sridevi attended the function.

[77] In an interview with The Hindu, Binny Krishnakumar said: I will forever remain indebted to composer Vidyasagar, who gave me the song when I was a nobody in playback singing.

[86] Writing for PopMatters in 2014, Kumuthan Maderya criticised Vasu for confusing "spirit possession with Dissociative Identity Disorder, conflating both to create pop psychology" and "ostensibly fusing modern science and demonology for the sake of intellectualism".

[88] Film artist, trainer and filmmaker L. Satyanand said Chandramukhi is a classic example of the subgenre "horror of the demonic" and of "brilliance", ranking it alongside The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Psycho (1960).

[a] According to Girish Ramdas, chief operating officer of Galatta Media, all the items had certificates of authenticity signed by the film's producers.

[96] A line spoken by Rajinikanth to Prabhu, "Naan gunda irundha nalla irukkadhu...nee elachcha nalla irukkadhu", which translates into "I won't look good if I put on weight...but you won't look good if you have reduced weight" evoked a lot of laughter among audiences.

[101][102] In the Telugu film Rajababu (2006), the characters played by Rajinikanth and Jyothika are renacted by Brahmanandam and Kovai Sarala, respectively.

[107] In Padikkadavan (2009), Assault Arumugam (Vivek) imitates Rajinikanth's tornado creating leg movement from the introduction scene when arriving in Andhra Pradesh.

[115][116] In April 2020, a sequel, Chandramukhi 2, to be produced by Sun Pictures was announced,[117] but was eventually taken over by Lyca Productions in June 2022, owing to the delays from the COVID-19 pandemic.

P. Vasu returned as the director with confirmed cast members including Raghava Lawrence, Kangana Ranaut, Lakshmi Menon and Vadivelu.