Epic Hero) is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language historical drama film written and directed by Vasanthabalan and produced by S. Sashikanth and Varun Manian under their production companies YNOT Studios and Radiance Media Group.

Set in the early 20th century, the film is about the lives of two theatre artistes and the competition that exists between them in a small drama troupe.

[3] The project was announced by YNOT Studios in September 2012, and principal photography of the film was commenced on early June 2013.

The soundtrack and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman; while cinematography was handled by Nirav Shah and editing by Praveen K. L. The costume designs were done by Perumal Selvam and Niranjani Ahathian, and Pattanam Rasheed was the make up artist.

[5] At the 2015 Vijay Awards, the film was nominated into eight categories, with receiving a win in two of them – Best Costume Designer and Best Make Up.

S. V. Bhairava Sundaram, who is another student of Swami, is a popular "Rajapart" (performing main title characters of a stage play).

Swami does not give up and conducts an audition for the main character role of Soorapadman, in which Kali and Gomathi perform.

Kali, fully drunk, comes to the troupe and curses Swami that he is the reason for Rangamma's and his unborn child's death.

Inside the jail, Kali meets other people involved in the freedom movement and encouraged by them, he agrees to do stage plays on that topic.

Distressed Vadivu leaves the troupe and waits for a call from Kali to join his "Bharatha Gana Sabha", in which he stages plays based on the freedom movement, due to which he frequently goes to jail.

Through one of the discussions between director Vasanthabalan and script writer Jeyamohan about old drama schools of Madurai, Jeyamohan introduced Vasanthabalan to a book called Enathu Naadaga Vazhkai, an autobiography of theatre doyen Avvai Shanmugham[7] which helped him script the film.

[3][8] Kaaviya Thalaivan was announced in September 2012 as a venture by the production house YNOT Studios teaming with Vasanthabalan and Siddharth, the latter as the one of the lead actor of the film.

[11] In a press release of June 2013, the team revealed that actresses Vedhicka and Anaika Soti were also added to the cast thereafter, as were supporting actors Nassar and Thambi Ramaiah.

[16] However, only Vedhika's role is inspired by Sundarambal's life and the film is a musical drama of theatre artistes.

Prithviraj revealed, "It is (Kaaviya Thalaivan) based on the popular theatre tradition that existed in Tamil Nadu during the 1920s and 1930s before movies took over.

[20] Vasanthabalan stated there were hardly any technical challenges involved while filming, comparing the situation of cues to his previous outing Aravaan.

[3] In an interview to The Hindu, Vedhika said that each of the cast members had to sport 20-25 different looks in the film to get the feel of their characters.

Jeyamohan also said the settings used for shooting the play sequences in the film provided ample space to explore the past.

[21] Vedhika prepared for her role by watching the 1966 Tamil fim Saraswathi Sabatham and drama videos.

[15] In an interview with The Times of India, director Vasanthabalan stated that the characters of Nassar and Vedhika were inspired by real-life legends.

[39] The satellite rights of the film were sold to Star Vijay, and the television premiere took place on 14 April 2015, coinciding with Tamil New Year's Day.

[41] Sify called the film "Good" and remarked "Vasantabalan’s Kaaviya Thalaivan is a class act.

"[43] A reviewer from Deccan Chronicle stated "Some aspects of the script could have had a makeover, but these short coming are adequately made up by Siddharth's excellent performance.

"[45] S. Saraswati of Rediff.com felt that the film is worth a watch, giving it a rating of 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "This is a role of a lifetime for Siddharth, a truly memorable performance.

"[46] Behindwoods rated the film 3 out of 5 and stated "Technically very sound, Kaaviya Thalaivan is marked by excellent performances and production values.

Balan has brought alive in front of us the stage, the makeup, the color and the myriad other things that go into a drama production of those days.

Credits are definitely due to Vasanthabalan for his efforts to showcase the tradition of performing arts in a bygone era to the WhatsApp generation.

"[48] However, Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu remarked that the film had a great premise which doesn't fulfill its potential.

He felt that Siddharth and Prithviraj struggled with ill-defined parts and extremely predictable events and after criticizing the film for the modernization of sequences and dialogues, selection of singers and lack of proper confrontation scenes between the protagonists, he concluded "There is no denying Vasanthabalan’s desire to make good cinema, but like his other films, Kaaviya Thalaivan makes us give him an A for effort, even as we rummage down the alphabet when it comes to aspects of the execution.

"[49] Haricharan Pudipeddi of IANS stated "At the end of Kaaviya Thalaivan, there's a side in you that wants to laud the effort of auteur G. Vasanthabalan, who has always strived to give us good cinema, especially for recreating a bygone era in grand style on screen.