Naan Kadavul

I am God) is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Bala and produced by K. S. Sreenivasan under Vasan Visual Ventures.

The film stars Arya, alongside Pooja Umashankar, Rajendran, Krishnamoorthy, Azhagan Thamizhmani and Vijaya Bharathi.

A badly wounded Hamsavalli finds her way to Rudhran and beseeches him to free her from her misery and the earthly life.

After the release of Pithamagan (2003), Bala began to work on a script for a film for which he sought inspiration from a scene in Anbe Sivam which had inspired him to make his film, referring to a scene where Kamal Haasan states to Madhavan that "when we love others unconditionally without any expectation, we become Gods".

[11] Early sources indicated that Cleeny, sister of actress Gopika, would play the lead role in the film although this later proved to be untrue and Meera Jasmine was selected.

[17] However, as the film yet again failed to take off, Ajith finally pulled out of the project in June 2006 stating he could wait no longer for Bala.

[6][18][19] It was reported that Narain, who also made his debut with Chithiram Pesuthadi, would do the role but producers wanted a more saleable name, and hence Arya was signed up.

[22] Rajendran, a fight master who earlier appeared in a small role in director Bala's previous film Pithamagan was selected to play main villain thus making his debut as full-fledged actor.

[26] Shoots continued in Kasi and Varanasi in January 2007, with Arya opting against working in any other films till Naan Kadavul was complete.

Meenakshi, Anjali and Parvathy Thiruvothu were heavily linked to the role to replace Bhavana, but Bala opted against selecting either.

[29][30] Subsequently, Karthika, who had been seen in small budget films such as Thootukudi and Pirappu, was booked as heroine and she was made to beg in the streets of Periyakulam during an audition.

[31] Hindi actress, Neetu Chandra, was flown down to Theni for a test shoot but Bala felt she did not have the looks for the role of a beggar girl.

Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu called it "a rare offering for intrepid folks who plump for true-to-life depictions".

"[36] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave the film a rating of three out of five stars, writing, "Naan Kadavul is definitely worth a watch for its superb secondary characters, setting and music", but noted weaknesses with the script, describing it as lacking "punch."