During his career, Indian film director Gautham Vasudev Menon has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the production stage under his direction.
In August 2001, following the release of Minnale (2001), Menon began work on a film tentatively titled Iru Vizhi Unadhu, though the project did not develop into production.
[10] Menon revealed that the film would initially be about a young college student who falls in love with a classmate, and in the second half, something large happens on a national level, prompting the protagonist to take it upon himself to solve that, with just his band of friends.
[10] Menon expressed an interest in remaking Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006) in Hindi with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role, without the love angle, though the project fell through after discussions with UTV Motion Pictures.
[13][14] In July 2007, Menon began work on a youth-centric film titled Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam featuring Trisha in the lead role.
Menon signed on actress Sridevi's nephew Karthik, his assistant director Veera, dancer Sathish and video jockey Shaam, for acting roles in the film.
Actresses Nikita Thukral and Nethra, previously seen in Thoovanam (2007), also joined the film in lead roles, while Daniel Balaji was cast as the antagonist.
[22][23] In September 2008, Menon signed on with Sivaji Productions to direct Ajith Kumar and Sameera Reddy in an action drama film titled Surangani.
The script was adapted to suit Indian audiences from a Clive Cussler novel, and told the tale of a chase between a bank robber and a police officer.
[32][33] In early 2011, Menon began pre-production work on a television series featuring Parthiban in the lead role of a detective, but did not carry through with the idea after he failed to find financiers.
[34] A Hindi version of the romantic films Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012) in Tamil and Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu (2012) in Telugu, titled Assi Nabbe Poorey Sau, was also shot simultaneously with Aditya Roy Kapoor and Samantha playing the lead roles.
[42] In October 2015, Menon began planning a multilingual production to be shot in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, which would feature four actors in leading roles.
Menon initially discussed making the project with Silambarasan, Allu Arjun, Fahadh Faasil and Puneeth Rajkumar, with the latter also keen to produce the Kannada version of the film.
[43][44] Over the following months, Prithviraj agreed to portray the Malayali character in the film ahead of Fahadh Faasil, and accepted the offer despite Menon's initial doubts about whether the actor would feature in a multi-starrer project.
[49][50] In an interview in November 2016, Menon stated that the character of Karthik from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa would be retained in Ondraaga, with the plot taking off eight years after the release of the previous film.
[52] Production on the film was postponed as the makers were unable to finalise the actors to play the Tamil and Telugu characters, while Menon also began work on Dhruva Natchathiram (2023) with Vikram.
In March 2017, Prithviraj called the film a "very modern take on friendship and self-discovery", while revealing that the script was complete and production would possibly begin by the end of 2017.
[53] In early 2018, following a brief period where Menon prioritised his other productions, he signed on Madhavan to portray the Tamil character of Karthik after Silambarasan had turned down the offer citing his reluctance to work with other lead actors.
[58] By August 2020, Menon revealed that he had written most of the script but that Suriya wanted a gap between his cop films after the Singam series, and that the project was on hold.
[60] During late 2019, Menon revealed that he was working on the script of a romantic film starring Suriya in the lead role, titled Kamal & Kadambari.
[57][66] Menon confirmed that he was working on a sequel to his action-thriller Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006) in March 2020, and that he was in discussions with Kamal Haasan to reprise the lead character of Raghavan.
[75][76] In September 2022, after the release of Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Menon revealed that Nadhigalilae Neeradum Suriyan was a different script narrating the "new-age love story" of an actor.
[81] During the promotions of Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu (2022) in Hyderabad during September 2022, Menon revealed that he was scripting a sequel to Gharshana (2004) and that Venkatesh would be portraying the lead role.
[87] In 2013, Menon was briefly associated with the anthology film, X, helping partially direct a script written by Thiagarajan Kumararaja before opting out and being replaced by Nalan Kumarasamy.
[89] The team held discussions with Gautham Vasudev Menon about directing the film, but he ultimately did not sign on the project, later titled Andhagan.