Raayan is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action crime film written, directed and led by Dhanush, in his second directorial venture, and backed by Kalanithi Maran under Sun Pictures.

The film also stars Dushara Vijayan, S. J. Suryah, Sundeep Kishan, Kalidas Jayaram, Selvaraghavan, Prakash Raj, Aparna Balamurali, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Saravanan, Dileepan and Divya Pillai.

It revolves around a food truck owner in North Chennai, who struggles to protect his family when they inadvertently get muddled in a war between two rival gangs, resulting in unforeseen circumstances.

Principal photography commenced in July 2023 at East Coast Road in Chennai along with Adhitya Ram Studios, where most of the filming took place at, which was again followed by another schedule held in Karaikudi, and wrapped by mid-December.

Around that time, Raayan was planning his sister Durga's wedding with a government employee and agrees to shoulder the responsibility of the event expense around ₹5 lakhs and dowry leaving him in dire need of money.At the groom's family's request for dowry, Raayan agrees to handover his profitable mobile hotel, and all their bank savings to the groom's family.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that both Muthu and Manickam, who weren't able to land a job quickly, were now working for Sethu to supplement their household expenses; at realising their target was their own brother, they panic and stab him.

On 29 December 2017, Dhanush announced that for his second directorial after Pa Paandi (2017), he would collaborate with Hema Rukmani and Murali Ramasamy, headers of Thenandal Studio Limited.

[9] Touted to be a bilingual film released in Tamil and Telugu-languages, it would feature Nagarjuna, Aditi Rao Hydari, S. J. Suryah, R. Sarathkumar and Srikanth.

[10] Music composer Sean Roldan, cinematographer Om Prakash and editor Prasanna GK were brought on board.

[33] Principal photography began with an inaugural puja ceremony on 5 July 2023 at East Coast Road in Chennai with the presence of the film's cast and crew.

Filming also went on there for a while,[34] before they moved to a massive set with around 500 houses at Adithya Ram Studios in ECR, Chennai, where the rest of the schedule continued to be shot at.

[56] Asian Suresh Entertainment acquired the distribution rights of the film in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for reportedly ₹5 crore.

[citation needed] Home Screen Entertainment acquired the distribution rights for Singapore and the Middle East, DMY Creations for Malaysia, Prime Media for North America, and MKS Talkies for Australia and New Zealand.

[citation needed] The film began streaming on Amazon Prime Video from 23 August 2024 in Tamil, alongside Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada languages.

[68] Rohit Panikker of Times Now gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Raayan is a bloodbath that even the most ardent fan of such blood and gore would find exhausting, especially since it falls in the line of a long spate of recent releases that are similarly-conceived.

"[69] Divya Nair of Rediff gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Raayan is an interesting one-time watch written for the masses with a little meat here and there for the critics to bite on.

"[70] M Suganth of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Raayan has a raw and rage-filled setting, and is populated by characters who are rugged, violent, deceptive and also vulnerable.

"[71] S. Devasankar of Pinkvilla gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Dhanush as the director brings a flair of the Tamil gangster action flicks from the late 2000s, but with a modern twist, which works out wonderfully on the silver screen.

"[72] Avinash Ramachandran of The Indian Express gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Dhanush, the actor and director, stands tall in a film powered by AR Rahman’s brilliant music, and top-notch performances only to fall just short of realising its potential.

"[73] Anusha Sundar of OTTplay gave 3/5 stars and wrote "[...] Yes, the writing is bogged down by certain uncertainty and convenience, which does not let many characters to get developed, and in fact get eliminated before they are got to known.

But Raayan is also a valiant effort of Dhanush’s that lets many departments shine through, and plays out a canvas for a experimentation in commercial cinema.

"[75] B. V. S. Prakash of Deccan Chronicle gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Dhanush turned director for this film and relied on gore and violence revolving around a wafer-thin plot.

"[76] Latha Srinivasan of Hindustan Times wrote "Dhanush’s Raayan totally packs a punch and is a must-watch for its captivating performances and unexpected story twists.

"[77] Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu wrote "In his sophomore directorial, Dhanush attempts to turn an ordinary story into something more with a well-written setting and measured storytelling, but falls disappointingly short.