Emperor) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language political thriller film written and directed by Mari Selvaraj, and produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies.

The film stars Vadivelu as the title character, along with Fahadh Faasil, Keerthy Suresh, and Udhayanidhi in his final acting credit.

The film was officially announced in March 2022, and principal photography commenced later that month; production wrapped in September 2022.

Maamannan is an MLA belonging to the Dalit community, who rose up the ranks from being a cadre of the Samathuva Samooganeedhi Makkal Kazhagam (SSMK) in Salem district, Tamil Nadu.

Maamannan's son Athiveeran alias "Veera", is a practitioner of Adimurai who stopped talking to his father owing to emotional and physical trauma caused by a casteist attack from members of the local dominant community in his childhood.

Rathnavelu is the SSMK district secretary for Salem and younger son of late ex-minister Sundaram, from a dominant community.

Rathnavelu had fought a hard fight after his father's death, using all means available to reach the position of district secretary, despite not holding a public office.

Three months before elections, Rathnavelu's men destroy a free coaching centre run by Veera's friends and his love interest Leela because it was affecting the business of a private coaching centre run by Rathnavelu's elder brother Shanmugavel in his father's name.

Rathnavelu directs his men to beat up Maamannan and Veera where he runs to fetch his gun, but his wife Jyothi locks him inside the room to prevent further chaos.

Rathnavelu plans to counter-attack and kill Maamannan and Veeran, but is ordered to stay put by the Chief Minister Ka.

He even fields his wife Jyothi in his place for another constituency in order to fully direct his efforts to defeat Maamannan.

A tight battle occurs during election campaign wherein Rathnavel tries to rally the support of all dominant castes against Maamannan.

[9] The same month, Red Giant Movies announced their next film Maamannan, which confirmed the reported starrer, direction by Mari Selvaraj and music by A. R.

[21] An audio launch was held at Nehru Stadium in Chennai on 1 June with the Maamannan team and many chief guests, including Kamal Haasan and Sivakarthikeyan.

Along with the Maamannan team, Pa. Ranjith, AR Murugadoss, Mysskin, Pandiraj, H. Vinoth, Vijay Antony, Kavin, Kamal Hassan, Sivakarthikeyan, Vetrimaaran, S. J. Suryah, Pradeep Ranganathan, Soori, Vignesh Shivan and Boney Kapoor attended the event.

"[37] Manigandan KR of The South First gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and said "Vadivelu and Fahadh Faasil put up an exceptional show; barring some minor issues, the movie leaves a mark on audiences.