The film, directed by A. R. Murugadoss and produced by Lyca Productions, stars Vijay in dual roles, with Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Sathish.

He composed the film's theme music before signing the project, and started recording the album in late-2013 which was continued till September 2014.

[24][25] A. R. Rahman's frequent collaborator-musician Keba Jeremiah played the guitar for one song which he labelled as "a soul stirring melody".

[42] Soundarya Rajinikanth, creative head of Eros International in South branch had said that "With this move, we are looking forward to leveraging our strength in exclusively exploiting Tamil music content across all formats".

[42][43] Initial reports that the album release would be held in mid-September 2014 at the Wembley Arena in London,[44] and that the lead pair would perform at the audio launch along with Anirudh proved to be untrue.

[46][47] Soundarya Rajinikanth assured that the audio event will be held in a grand manner, and has been talked with high profile officials to provide proper security,[48][49] after reports being surfaced of a protest led by Tamil groups against the film and its investor Lyca Productions, whose chairman and producer Subaskaran Allirajah had business links with the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

[52] The event was hosted by Ma Ka Pa Anand along with Priyanka Deshpande,[53] whilst composer Anirudh, Hiphop Tamizhan Adhi and other musicians were also part of stage performances.

[6] Durgesh Haridas of The Indian Express stated, "The OST is arguably the best for a Vijay movie in recent times and Anirudh’s variety and experimentation is helping him establishing himself as one of Kollywood's top music makers.

"[63] Indiaglitz rated 3.5 out of 5 stating "This is the best OST for a Vijay starrer in the recent years, and Anirudh has made full use of the given opportunity to establish himself as one of the best among the current lot.

"[65] Vipin Nair of Music Aloud gave 8 out of 10 stating that "Good mix of songs from Anirudh that should work well for an Ilayathalapathy movie.

"[66] In a contrast review, Moviecrow rated 6/10 and said "This much awaited album combo boasting the untested combination of Vijay-Anirudh-AR Murugadoss is sort of a let down.

The original background score of Kaththi was released by Anirudh Ravichander, in a jukebox format through his official YouTube channel on 28 January 2015, to coincide with the film's 100th day celebration as well.