The film stars Rajinikanth in the titular role, alongside Nana Patekar, Eswari Rao, Huma Qureshi, Samuthirakani, Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil, K. Manikandan, Dileepan, Nitish Veera, Sampath Raj and Ravi Kale.

The film follows Karikalan "Kaala", the leader of Dharavi, who tries save his land and people from getting seized and evicted by Haridev "Hari Dhadha", a ruthless minister.

Kaala was scheduled to release on 27 April 2018 in theatres, but was postponed due to the conflict between Nadigar Sangam and Digital Service Providers.

However, a ruthless minister named Haridev "Hari Dada" Abhayankar repeatedly tries to evict the people of Dharavi and seize their land.

Karikaalan alias Kaala is the godfather of the Dharavi residents who oppose Hari's plans as he wants to protect the area and his people.

Vishnu Bhai kills the son of a Dharavi resident after the boy throws a stone at a poster of Hari.

Kaala and his people campaign through social media, and within two weeks, the State government cancels Hari's "Clean Mumbai Initiative."

Kaala and his younger son, Lenin, daughter-in-law, Puyal, and his brother-in-law, Vaaliyappan, fight alongside him against Hari's henchmen and the police.

Pankaj gets arrested after a video taken by a reporter named Praveen during the curfew provides evidence that Hari brought the henchmen into Dharavi to create problems with the police's support.

Hari again enters Dharavi at a function for constructing a new building, where he begins to hallucinate Kaala's appearance among the crowd and behaves erratically.

With Dharavi's success, many slums start to follow Kaala's way of protest to protect their neighbourhood irrespective of their illegal occupation of lands.

In early May 2017, the producers received an open letter from Sundar Shekar Mishra, the foster son of gangster Haji Mastan, threatening that the makers should not depict his father in negative light and if they did, they would face consequences.

[23][24] Marathi actress Anjali Patil also announced that she would be playing an important role in the film through a post on her official Twitter account.

[25] Several members of the technical crew of Kabali were retained for Kaala, with A. Sreekar Prasad replacing Praveen K. L. as the film's editor during its pre-production stage.

The soundtrack album consists of nine songs written by Kabilan, Umadevi, Arunraja Kamaraj, Arivu, Dopeadelicz, Logan and Roshan Jamrock.

The audio launch event of Kaala took place on 9 May 2018, at YMCA College of Physical Education, Chennai and the songs were simultaneously released on all streaming platforms.

[55][56] However, the film's release was postponed due to the standoff between Nadigar Sangam and Digital Service Providers, on the increase of Virtual Print Fee charges,[57][58] followed by the 2018 Tamil Nadu protests for Kaveri water sharing issue.

[65] Kaala is the first Indian film ever to be released in Saudi Arabia, following the country lifting its ban on public theatres in December 2017.

[83][84] After Kabali (2016), multiple brands join once again with Kaala,[85] which includes Airtel,[86] Cadbury 5 Star,[87] Nippon Paint and Havells.

[88] The company had also made essential requirements, to stream the audio launch and trailer,[89] through the Airtel TV app,[90] and also a ticket contest, was held for fans.

[88] Nippon Paint launched a new contest called "Shades of Kaala", through their official Facebook page, through which the fans can get couple passes and floppies.

[91][92] K. Rajashekaran of GSR Vinmeen Creations filed a case claiming the title of this film against Pa Ranjith, Rajnikanth and Dhanush.

[95] The film's release in Karnataka was banned by the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce after Rajinikanth made statements supporting Tamil Nadu's claims in the Kaveri River water dispute during the 2018 Tamil Nadu protests for Kaveri water sharing.

[108] The Hindustan Times gave its ratings as 4 out of 5 for the movie, stating "Rajinikanth lends his voice to Pa Ranjith’s political viewpoint".