The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman while the dialogues, cinematography, editing and art direction were handled by Madhan Karky, R. Rathnavelu, Anthony and Sabu Cyril respectively.

Critics were particularly appreciative of Shankar's direction, storyline, Rajinikanth's performance as Chitti, music, action sequences, production values and the visual effects by V. Srinivas Mohan.

In 2010, scientist K. Vaseegaran creates an android robot named Chitti with the help of his assistants, Siva and Ravi, to commission it into the Indian Army.

Threatened with death if he fails to meet the deadline, Bohra seeks the details of Chitti's neural schema, intending to program his robots correctly.

[30] Khan was about to produce it under his own banner, Red Chillies Entertainment, but in October the same year the project was officially aborted due to creative differences between him and Shankar.

[13] Although Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was Shankar's original choice for the female lead in 2001, she declined it owing to a busy schedule and was replaced by Zinta.

[37] When Shankar revived the project with Rajinikanth,[31] contenders for the part included Deepika Padukone,[38] Shriya Saran and Rai, who was ultimately selected and paid ₹60 million.

[51][52] Sabu Cyril, in addition to being the film's art director, made a guest appearance as Shah, an interpreter between Bohra and the terrorist organisation.

After rejecting Ramoji Film City for technical reasons, Enthiran's producer, Kalanithi Maran, took six months to set up three air-conditioned studio floors on land in Perungudi owned by Sun TV Network.

[72] The filming for Chitti's introduction to the international robotics conference was completed in December 2008 at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering and Vellore Institute of Technology, where more than 400 students were used as extras.

[82] For the sequence entitled "Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam", choreographed by Remo D'Souza and featuring Rai and Rajinikanth as Chitti,[83] three different sets were used: one of copper, one of gold and one in silver.

[Note 2] 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.

[95][96] K. Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake, in their book Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas, noted the similarity between the two works, arguing that Chitti was "manipulated by Bohra to become a Frankenstein-like figure".

[102] For Enthiran's soundtrack and score, A. R. Rahman made use of the Continuum Fingerboard, an instrument he had experimented with previously in the song "Rehna Tu" from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's drama film Delhi-6 (2009).

[109][110] The Tamil album was officially released on 31 July 2010, which coincided with a promotional event held at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The release event of the Telugu version, titled Robo, was held in Hyderabad on 6 August 2010, which was attended by Chiranjeevi, D. Ramanaidu, Mohan Babu, Srinu Vaitla, Kajal Aggarwal, and Kamna Jethmalani.

[132] To promote Enthiran, AGS Entertainment 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 Villivakkam.

[141] The novelist Aarur Thamizhnadan made a complaint with the Chennai Metropolitan Police against the filmmakers in November 2010, stating that the producers plagiarised his 1996 novel Jugiba.

[163] Cable Shankar of Kalki magazine praised the technical aspects, music, stunts and direction while calling Chitti's character attracts more attention than Vaseegaran.

Chopra criticised the film's portions in the second half, describing them as "needlessly stretched and cacophonous", but concluded her review by saying, "Robot rides on Rajinikanth's shoulders and he never stoops under the burden.

"[166] Rajeev Masand of News18 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 [sic] that keeps the film fresh.

"[168] Malini Mannath of The New Indian Express noted Enthiran for having "An engaging script, brilliant special effects, and a debonair hero who still carries his charisma effortlessly.

He believed it was not the case in Enthiran: "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.

"[169] In contrast, Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times rated it two out of five stars, writing that "Shankar's work slips into a loud, overdramatic and exaggerated mess".

"[172] Roger Moore, writing for the Orlando Sentinel, 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.

[174] Conversely, Joe Leydon of Variety believed that Shankar "riffs on everything" from Frankenstein to The Terminator, but suggested that the film was an "overwhelming mash-up of American-style, f/x-driven sci-fi spectacle and a Bollywood musical.

[192][Note 12] In the film, Chitti often introduces himself by stating the clock rate of his central processing unit, which is 1 terahertz (1012 hertz), and his random-access memory limit, which is 1 zettabyte (1021 bytes).

[198] In March 2015, Kamath, in his review of the science fiction film Chappie, compared its eponymous lead character to Chitti in terms of learning human emotions.

[199] While promoting Avengers: Endgame in India, co-director Joe Russo said that the sequence in Enthiran where numerous clones of Chitti come together to form a giant python inspired a similar scene in Avengers: Infinity War's predecessor Age of Ultron (2015) where the titular antagonist, Ultron 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.

[200][201] In September 2015, writer B. Jeyamohan announced that the pre-production stage of a standalone sequel to Enthiran was "going on in full swing" and that principal photography would commence once Rajinikanth finished filming for Kabali, by the end of that year.