His family faced financial pressures in the early 2000s with his father being out of work, and subsequently they decided to put their remaining earnings into a venture titled Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002), which Selvaraghavan had written.

[10] After release, Selvaraghavan stated that he had also directed the film, but was forced to credit his more established film-maker father Kasthuri Raja as the sole director, in order to help the project find a distributor.

Selvaraghavan had written the script for the film in the late 1990s and had first narrated the story to Dhanush in their shared bedroom at home, before asking him to play the lead role of Vinod after the success of Thulluvadho Illamai.

[14][15] Since its release, the film has been remade into several Indian languages, while Selvaraghavan was briefly associated with the Hindi remake to be produced by Boney Kapoor in 2004, but the project did not eventually materialise.

[19] Another reviewer from Rediff.com added: "Selvaraghavan has once again displayed his skill making a movie that is touching without being mushy, and believable because of its realism", noting that "7G Rainbow Colony remains with you, disturbs you and lingers like the glowing embers of a fire long burnt.

[24] In 2004, he began pre-production on another gangster film titled Kasimedu for producer Salem A. Chandrasekharan, which would feature Ajith Kumar, Dhanush and Bharath in the leading roles.

[29] Featuring acclaimed technical work by Yuvan Shankar Raja and Arvind Krishna again, the film told the story of a slum kid's growth into a notorious gangster.

Talking about the making of the film, Selvaraghavan called it "an experiment" and stated it had "one of the most complicated screenplays", while revealing he was more nervous with the final product in comparison to his previous ventures.

[35][36] It went on to have an average run at the box office despite taking a grand opening, with Selvaraghavan suggesting the excessive bloodshed scenes may have kept family audiences away.

Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule opened to positive reviews in April 2007, with critics noting: "Selva reads the safe path in AMAV, and is most likely to emerge with a winner.

[43] The film was stalled in early 2007 due to cinematographer Arvind Krishna's decision to leave White Elephants and the project was eventually shelved.

Shoots in all regions were tough and demanding for the crew as the film featured more than three thousand junior artistes from a variety of unions across India, with the language barrier becoming a problem.

[9] The project, dubbed by the media as Sindubad, finally began shooting in September 2009 in Ladakh, with Swati Reddy signed on as the female lead with Ismail Merchant as music director.

Filming continued in caves near the Himalayas with the team facing trouble with the freezing weather conditions, while Selvaraghavan announced that the next schedule would be held abroad in the United States.

[62] Soon after in June 2010, another project announced by Selvaraghavan, a bilingual featuring Rana Daggubati set in 50 BC, was also postponed after the pair felt it was too early to work on the film.

[66] After release of Aayirathil Oruvan, Selvaraghavan began work on a fantasy romance script titled Maruvan, which would yet again feature Dhanush and Andrea Jeremiah in the lead roles.

[69] During production, Selvaraghavan announced he would collaborate with Yuvan Shankar Raja again after G. V. Prakash Kumar became busy, but eventually later changed his mind and retained his original choice.

[71] Sify.com wrote that the film has "simplistic story telling with hard hitting impact" and that "Mayakkam Enna will stay with you long after the lights have come back on", while Rediff noted that if Selvaraghavan "had tightened the second half, we would have had a masterpiece on our hands.

"[72][73] Selvaraghavan then chose to restart work on Irandam Ulagam in September 2011, with a new cast of Arya and Anushka Shetty and began shooting for the film again from the start.

The film narrates two love stories taking place in parallel universes and how they come to coincide, with the lead actors both playing double roles.

Talking about the film, the director noted that he tried to readdress the problem of the "concept of pure love being lost to today's generation" and incorporated elements of mysticism, Sufism and a Zen feel to the story.

[76] By October 2013, the team revealed that all post-production work including computer generated imagery which took months was finally over and the content was locked and ready for release.

[79] The Hindu wrote: "With just a handful of movies, Selvaraghavan has announced himself a major filmmaker, and it falls on us to look at his latest venture, Irandaam Ulagam, as the (worthy) next installment in a thematically connected oeuvre as well as a (problematic) standalone film.

[84] In December 2013, Selvaraghavan began pre-production on a new venture titled Alaivarisai, produced by Varun Manian, which would feature Silambarasan and Trisha Krishnan in the lead roles.

The film was put on hold in May 2014, with Manian announcing that Selvaraghavan had to sort out issues with his previous producers PVP Cinemas, before beginning work on the venture.

[89] In a sudden turn of events in October 2015, Selvaraghavan put the film on hold, stating that financial restraints meant that the project was not viable.

A gothic horror film starring S. J. Suryah, Regina Cassandra, and Nandita Swetha, it was looked as his comeback, as a director, after the severe backlash to NGK.

Kalaippuli S. Thanu is producing it under his V Creations banner, and Yuvan Shankar Raja is composing the music for the film, which is his eighth collaboration with Selvaraghavan.