Gambling) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film[1] directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies.

The film stars an ensemble cast of Ajith Kumar, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Andrea Jeremiah, Ashwin Kakumanu, Vaibhav Reddy, Premji Amaren, Mahat Raghavendra, Jayaprakash, Aravind Akash and Subbu Panchu.

Prithvi then reveals that Kamal faked his death in a secret mission to draw attention to the betting scandals and returned under the name Praveen Kumar.

At the final moment, Praveen throws a gun at Prithvi, who shoots Vinayak and a huge explosion rocks the shack, seemingly ending the fight.

Vinayak snatches Praveen's gun and holds him at gunpoint declaring that the game is over Following the release of his film Aasal in February 2010, Ajith Kumar was signed by Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Cloud Nine Movies for a project touted to be directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon.

[12] Venkat Prabhu later disclosed that Ajith was never considered for the role when he wrote the first draft of the script but that he kept his "usual gang of boys in mind" while creating the characters.

[14] Ajith had called Prabhu at that time and expressed interest in performing a role similar to The Joker character played by Heath Ledger in the 2008 American superhero film The Dark Knight.

The film's title, initially being Mangaatha, derived from a popular Indian traditional card game, underwent a minor change in its spelling, due to numerological reasons.

[21] Telugu actor Nagarjuna was first approached to essay a powerful character as a CBI officer,[12] being initially confirmed by the director during the launch of the film.

He had also conveyed interest in remaking the film into Telugu and playing Ajith's role in return, but since he could not adjust his call sheet, he was forced to pull out,[12] with Arjun replacing him in November 2010.

[22] In an interview from August 2010, Venkat Prabhu had affirmed that Mohan Babu's son, Manoj Manchu, Ganesh Venkatraman, Venkat Prabhu's younger brother, Premji Amaren, who had been part of all his brothers' films, and a newcomer Mahat Raghavendra, a childhood friend of producer Dhayanidhi Alagiri,[23] were signed to portray Ajith's sidekicks in the film.

[27] Jai in 2013 revealed that he was initially roped in to play the police officer role but that Venkat Prabhu replaced him with Arjun after Ajith became part of the project.

[citation needed] Early reports suggested that Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kajal Aggarwal and Anushka Shetty were initially approached for the lead female roles,[citation needed] while in July 2010, reports surfaced that Shriya Saran and Neetu Chandra,[29] and Lakshmi Rai were supposedly signed for the roles.

In November 2010, Sneha was reported to be added to the cast to be paired opposite Arjun,[37] however the role was later finalised with Andrea Jeremiah portraying that character.

[citation needed] Concerning the film crew, Venkat Prabhu renewed his previous associations with his cousin Yuvan Shankar Raja, for the background score and soundtrack of Mankatha, Sakthi Saravanan, who would handle the cinematography, and Praveen K. L., who along with N. B. Srikanth, would take care of the editing.

Vasuki Bhaskar and Kalyan remained the costume designer and the main choreographer, respectively, with Shoby joining the latter for a couple of songs, while Selva was assigned as the stunt coordinator.

[citation needed] The first schedule of filming was supposed to begin by early September,[42] but due to pre-production works and since the principal cast was not decided yet, the shooting got delayed further, finally commencing on 25 October in Chennai.

[45][46] The film's second schedule was planned to begin on 6 December 2010 in a studio in Chennai,[46] which was slightly delayed due to heavy rain, and started couple of days later.

During the schedule, all important stunt sequences were canned at Binny Mills in Perambur,[citation needed] while simultaneously a grand set, resembling the Dharavi slum in Mumbai was erected in a Chennai studio.

An item number, titled "Machi, Open The Bottle", it featured actresses Debi Dutta and Kainaat Arora dancing to the song along with Ajith and the rest of the gang[8] The schedule was wrapped up by early February, with which approximately fifty per cent of the film was reportedly completed.

[citation needed] The remaining part of the film was supposedly to be shot during the third and last schedule to be held in Mumbai, which was to start in late February.

Earlier, an animation sequence lasting about 4 minutes was being created by specialised technicians, while CGI special effects were included in a song and action scenes, which was cited as the reason for the delay.

[57] The soundtrack album, following several postponements,[58] was released on 10 August 2011 at Radio Mirchi's Chennai station,[59] while two days later the team arranged a press meet, showcasing two songs and the trailer of the film.

[67][68] Cloud Nine Movies began negotiations with other production houses to sell the domestical theatrical rights, however talks with UTV Motion Pictures and Gemini Film Circuit resulted in failure.

[69] On 22 August 2011, Gnanavelraja confirmed that his production house Studio Green, had purchased the Indian domestic theatrical and the television rights of the film at an undisclosed record amount.

[72] On 24 August, Azhagiri announced that Kalanidhi Maran's Sun Pictures had bought the theatrical and satellite rights of the film and would distribute it along with Cloud Nine Movies.

[citation needed] The film completed a 50-day run at the box office and was ranked as second highest grosser in Tamil cinema behind Enthiran at the time of its release.

Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu called it a "gutsy" and "engaging game of cat and mouse that springs no surprises", adding that Venkat Prabhu had "laid out a filling spread this time".

"[95] S. Viswanath of Deccan Herald said, "Mankatha is strictly for Ajith fans, who has a wholesome blast, puffing, bulldozing his way and bedding belles by the dozen like there is no tomorrow.

"[97] Sifys critic highlighted that Ajith "steals the thunder and plays the emotionless bad man, to perfection", further adding that he looked "smashing and his scorching screen presence is unmatchable", while the reviewer criticised the script as being "dull", and concluded "for die-hard fans of Ajith who don't have a problem with an unforgivable 2 hours 40 minutes running time and juvenile comedy, this might be a treat.