As the second instalment in the Enthiran film series, 2.0 is a standalone sequel to Enthiran (2010), featuring Rajinikanth in a triple role as Vaseegaran, Chitti the Robot and Kutti, alongside Akshay Kumar as Pakshi Rajan (in his Tamil debut) and Amy Jackson as Nila, Sudhanshu Pandey, Adil Hussain, Kalabhavan Shajohn, and K. Ganesh appear in supporting roles.

The film follows the conflict between Chitti, the once dismantled humanoid robot, and Pakshi Rajan, a vengeful avian human, who seeks vengeance upon cell phone users to prevent the death of birds due to cellphone radiation.

[c][38][39][40][33] Eight years after the events of the first film, Dr Vaseegaran creates an android humanoid assistant named Nila, which he introduces to a group of college students while reminiscing about Chitti, his previous creation, which he had to dismantle after the robot had gone on a murderous rampage.

Angered at Chitti's victory, Dhinendra sneaks into the AIRD institute and releases Pakshi's aura from the containment circuit, which possesses Vaseegaran and causes chaos again.

Pakshi creates bird drones to attack, but before he can kill the people in the stadium, Chitti's small robot, Kutti "3.0", intervenes.

Vaseegaran recovers in a hospital and suggests reducing and controlling cell phone radiation to protect living beings, and the Home Minister promises to take action.

Along with Shankar and Rajinikanth, composer A. R. Rahman and editor Anthony remained on the development team for the sequel, while Jeyamohan was added to write the screenplay.

This was before Nirav Shah joined the technical team as a cinematographer in mid-2015 and visited specialist studios in the United States to research filming methods for 3D shoots.

[53] Shankar held initial discussions with Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan, and then Vikram about portraying a further role, though none of the three actors signed on to appear in the film.

[54][55] Subsequently, the team held talks with Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role, who agreed to work on the film for a record remuneration.

[60] After further negotiations with actors including Hrithik Roshan and Neil Nitin Mukesh, the makers signed on Akshay Kumar to portray the role for which Schwarzenegger was initially considered.

[62] On the first day of the shoot, a scene featuring Rajinikanth and several dwarf actors was shot at the erected set, while the team's principal cast and crew also assembled for a photoshoot.

A set of a mobile phone store was built on-site, while night scenes involving robotic equipment and military tanks were also canned.

[64] The team subsequently moved to Delhi in order to hold a forty-five-day schedule, continuing on from the same scenes with military tanks that were shot in Chennai.

Action scenes incorporating robotic equipment were filmed throughout early April in Delhi, with cinematographer Nirav Shah using helicams to capture sequences involving the three lead actors.

Soon after the schedule finished in early October, Shankar revealed that the film was two-thirds complete, following one hundred and fifty days of shooting.

And on the same day, two tracks from the film, "Endhira Logathu Sundhariye" and "Rajaali" were released, in Tamil and dubbed versions in Telugu and Hindi[81] Madhan Karky and Na.

[80] Unlike previous projects, Rahman began finalising the original background score six months back prior to release because he felt that the scenes were very heavy and it needed a lot of work.

[83] The film's premise of sparrows (and other birds) dying because of electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone towers, is a popular urban legend in India, which can be easily debunked by the fact that sparrows thrive in old parts of big cities with lots of nesting spaces and crevices, despite the high mobile phone tower concentration in those areas.

[84] Dr. Asad Rahmani, who had headed the Indian parliamentary panel to study the impact of communication towers on wildlife including birds and bees, called out the film, saying, "There is no scientific proof between electromagnetic radiation and absence of sparrows”.

[29] Steve Rousseau, writing for Audubon society, pointed out the impact of this film in spreading the falsehood linking radio waves and bird population decline.

[115] A critic for Bollywood Hungama gave it four and a half stars out of five and similarly commended Shankar, "[His] direction is highly effective and he proves once again why he's one of our best filmmakers.

[116] S Subhakeerthana of The Indian Express gave it four stars out of five: "Shankar has raised the bar in filmmaking in terms of visualisation, grandeur, and every frame of his fascinates you as a viewer".

[117] Business Today's Ramesh Bala gave it four stars out of five, and found Kumar to be the film's spotlight: "He has rocked both as Birdman and as a normal man in an emotional flashback".

[118] Writing for Hindustan Times, Raja Sen rated 2.0 three and a half stars out of five, terming Rajinikanth as "smarter than a smartphone" and counted him and Kumar among the film's strengths.

[119] A critic for the Indo-Asian News Service also gave three and a half stars out of five and wrote, "Unlike most science-fiction films, 2.0 takes the commercial route to entertain, thus does come across as illogical at places, but that's what makes it insanely fun".

[121] M. Suganth of The Times of India gave it three stars out of five; he stated that there is a sense of "just going through the motions in the first half," but found that the action sequences and chemistry between the leads helped keep the film enjoyable for most of its run-time.

[125] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film two stars out of five, describing it as "dull as ditchwater in the first half, perking up a little in the second, with a half-way watchable Akshay Kumar, and a Rajinikanth coming into his own right towards the end, for a bit".

[132] Kumar Shyam of The National gave it three and a half stars out of five and wrote, "2.0 is a very clever spectacle not to be missed for its sheer audacity and scale".

[133] Rafael Motamayor of Polygon wrote, "2.0's biggest draw is its impressive use of visual effects, and the film doesn't waste a moment to showcase its budget".