[4] The action thriller Pulan Visaranai (1990) was partly based on a real life confession by criminal Auto Shankar that he had kidnapped many girls at the behest of some political bigwigs and featured Vijayakanth alongside Rupini, Anandaraj, Radha Ravi and Sarathkumar in his first major role.

[9][10] Selvamani agreed to work on a film produced by Ravi Yadav with music scored by Ilaiyaraaja, having late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and the Sri Lankan civil war as its backdrop.

The scenes, which the censors wanted to cut, included the Tigers' training and police officers fleeing the venue, where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.

[13] The film won positive reviews after release in March 2007 with a critic stating "it is an interesting attempt to thread reality and some wonderful domestic drama.

The film won average reviews with a critic noting "though not very convincing and as powerful a story as he might have intended this to be, R. K. Selvamani still manages to keep one engrossed for most of the time with a narration sans hitches.

"[16] Selvamani next worked on a political film titled Makkal Aatchi with Mammootty in the lead, which won critical and commercial acclaim after release in October 1995.

[20] The film fared less well critically than the previous collaboration, with a reviewer noting "the director is caught in a cross-fire between, coming out with a realistic movie, and at the same time, one with the hero running around the trees, and the heroine.

Selvamani once again launched another political drama venture titled Indian Express in 1997, which would narrate the happenings of an event which had occurred in Trivandrum.

However, despite signing up Sarath Kumar to play the lead role as well as Khushbu, Roja and Anupam Kher, the film became stalled and was discontinued after the launch.

A critic noted the director was "losing his touch", criticising that aspects were almost "cartoonish" but praised his ability to maintain the viewer's suspense.

[27] Selvamani began working on Pulan Visaranai 2 in November 2005, a sequel to his 1990 film, and cast Prashanth in the leading role of the investigative cop.

Prashanth underwent strength training for the venture, while beauty pageant winner Medha Raghunath was briefly signed on to play the lead female role, before opting out again.

Selvamani subsequently appealed and compromised by agreeing to remove controversial dialogues and a sequence which involved an actress depicting Indian tennis player Sania Mirza.