The film, told in nonlinear narrative, tells the story of Lingesan, a bodybuilder-turned-supermodel, who sets out to exact revenge against his enemies after they turn him into a hunchback by injecting him with I virus.

Believing to be suffering from a genetic disease, Lingesan fakes his death to protect Diya, but he later learns the truth and decide to exact revenge with the help of his best friend Babu.

Lingesan forms a plan to disfigure his enemies rather than killing them; he burns Ravi alive, gets Osma to develop excessive hair growth, stings Indrakumar with bees, electrocutes John and infects Vasudevan with the I virus.

[17] His norm collaborator A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose the soundtrack album and background score for the film, working with Shankar for the tenth time.

[18] Action choreographer Peter Hein was initially roped in the project, but he had to back out, due to commitments with S. S. Rajamouli's film Baahubali (2015).

[21] In May 2012, Shankar visited New Zealand and met filmmaker Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor's special effects and prop company Weta Workshop.

[27][28] According to The Times of India, Shankar opted for the title I as he thought it "explains all the characteristics of the protagonist"; the word has a variety of meanings, which include "king, beauty, astonishment, guru, vulnerability, owner and arrow".

[38] Model-turned-actress Evelyn Sharma eventually selected for the female lead, by an audition, but had opted out due to language reasons.

[51] In the film, Vikram plays the character called 'Lingesan', who considers Arnold Schwarzenegger as a role model and aspires to win the Mr. Tamil Nadu title.

[59] The main cast and crew were off to China for a 50-day schedule to shoot certain stunt scenes while some song sequences were also filmed at locales in the northern part of the Hunan province.

[62] The canned footage of the track was put on hold by the Chinese film processing studio for a year, due to settlement disputes with the producer.

The climax train fight scene between Vikram and Upen Patel was shot in the railway stations of Chengalpattu, Visakhapatnam, Rayagada and Berhampur.

[72] By October 2013, Shankar had almost spent more than ₹60 crore (US$6.9 million) for the shooting and post-production, that include extensive visual effects work.

[89] Hurtado in his teaser review wrote, "We see Vikram taking on multiple characters including a Quasimodo-type, kicking monstrous amounts of ass in various action sequences, running across water, riding a cyborg motorcycle, and dancing up a storm in some absurdly colorful backgrounds" and concluded by saying "Shankar is nothing if not a visual stylist, and it looks like he's pulling out all the stops for this one".

[90] Prajakta Hebbar of IBNLive wrote, "When we heard that Tamil filmmaker Shankar was making a new film, we fully expected it to be larger-than-life, with a funky storyline and starring popular actors.

[91] Nivedita Mishra of the Hindustan Times elaborated in her teaser review, "Without doubt, the film's special effects are great by any standards.

Now, whether or not, they have been indigenously put together or have been outsourced from the West, the producers alone will know, but just the desire to make a film that gets its production value right yet doesn't overdo it, is good enough.

and praised the spectacular landscapes, edgy camera angles, action sequences before concluding that "Shankar has put in a lot of effort to make this magnum opus worth a watch if teasers are to go by.

Revealing a very interesting or rather a fantasy type story with jaw dropping visuals, wonderful locations, thrilling stunts, beautiful heroine, colorful songs, multi-dimensional Vikram and above all great amount of hard work.

[99] A report from International Business Times published during December 2013, stated about the release of I, which will hit theatres on the occasion of Tamil New Year (14 April 2014), thereby clashing with Rajinikanth-starrer Kochadaiyaan.

[101][102] During late-July 2014, it was further reported that the film will be releasing on the occasion of Diwali (22 October 2014),[103] which was officially confirmed by the producers during August,[104] in clash with Vijay's Kaththi and Vishal's Poojai.

According to Andhra Box office, I earned around ₹20.8 crore (US$2.4 million) nett in South India on its first day,[123] setting records in Kerala and Telangana/AP.

Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote "Shankar's visual ingenuity keeps things zippy for much of the hefty 188-minute running time, and star Chiyaan Vikram delivers a knockout three-pronged performance, but this cinematic bravura is offset by underdeveloped scripting, flatly one-dimensional villains and overdone lone-hero-vs.-swarms-of-murderous-attackers setpieces.

[134] Subhash K. Jha gave 4/5 stars, describing I as the "most exceptional" film from Shankar and wrote that it "takes us beyond the imaginable and the conceivable, fusing with fabulous flamboyance the fantasy element with a level of heightened reality that's commercial cinema's forte.

"[135] Filmfare gave 4/5 stars, stating that "Shankar balances a social critique along with technical gimmickry and here the message centres about our obsession with physical perfection and beauty.

[137] Rajeev Masand from IBN Live gave 3/5 stars and wrote "I from visionary Tamil director Shankar is a work of staggering ambition, somewhat weighed down by the filmmaker's own indulgence...(it) may be far from perfect, but for the most part it's pretty entertaining stuff.

"[138] The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Shot mesmerisingly by PC Sreeram on virgin locales in China and India, with world class CG work, this spectacle works because at the core, it's a romantic-thriller told simplistically....This is pure escapist fare, but will resonate with those who read fairy tales at bedtime.

"[140] Behindwoods gave 3/5 stars and stated "though the story is predictable beyond a point, it's an amalgamation of 'Masters' at play which works to a larger extent because of their huge efforts.

Barring few eye-popping stunt scenes, a slew of beautiful unseen locations, breathtaking camera by PC Sreeram and few hummable songs by AR Rahman, I is very ordinary.".

"[148] Deepanjana Pal of Firstpost wrote "I is too long, too stupid and too regressive to be entertaining" and also called it "superficial and the least fun Shankar film ever.