Based on a popular play Abhignyana Shakuntalam by Kalidasa, the film features Samantha in the title role of Shakuntala and Dev Mohan as Dushyanta, the king of Puru dynasty along with Mohan Babu, Jisshu Sengupta, Madhoo, Gautami, Aditi Balan and Ananya Nagalla in supporting roles.

[2][5] It is shot extensively around Hyderabad, including Ramoji Film City, Ananthagiri Hills, and Gandipet Lake.

He confessed his feelings to his companion and jester Vidushaka, urging him to think of a pretext to stay in the ashrama without arousing suspicion.

In her solitude, Shakuntala was absorbed in thoughts of her husband, due to which she failed to offer the appropriate hospitality to the short-tempered sage, Durvasa.

Upon reaching the king's palace, Dushyanta failed to recognise Shakuntala, and merely expressed his incredulity when the accompanying sages urged him to accept her as his queen.

After a while, the ring that Shakuntala had dropped in a pool of water was discovered by a fisherman inside a fish, which was produced before Dushyanta following accusations of theft.

In October 2020, the director announced that the pre-production of Hiranya Kashyapa was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the shooting process of the film will not start in the near future.

[19] Soon after the announcement, reports suggested that the makers have approached Anushka Shetty for the portrayal of Shakuntala, after her collaboration with Gunasekhar in the historical drama, Rudhramadevi (2015), which did not materialize.

[29] It was revealed that Sekhar V. Joseph and Bishwadeep Chatterjee were also signed on for the cinematography and sound design of the film, respectively.

[30] The first schedule of filming was started in late March with Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Dev Mohan, and Aditi Balan at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad.

[34] Reportedly, Samantha Ruth Prabhu joined the second schedule of filming along with Dev Mohan and Aditi Balan.

[37] The visual and graphics department is handled by industry professional Alagarsamy Maayan, with talents from Canada, Hong Kong and China working on the VFX to get the visualisation right.

[41] Shaakuntalam was scheduled to be released theatrically on 4 November 2022 along with the dubbed versions of Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada, but was later postponed due to the film being chosen to be converted into 3D format.

[46] Khushboo Ratda of Pinkvilla rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Samantha's image needed far smarter writing".

[48] The Hans India rated the film 2 out of 5 and wrote "Gunasekhar fails to bring enough drama to the proceedings to hold the attention".

[50] Raghu Bandi of The Indian Express rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote " The only letdown is this particular subject is hardly the right material for the current generation".

[51] Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute rated 1.5 out of 5 and wrote "Samantha tries her best to move the audience, but there's only so much an actor can do when attempting to stay afloat in a tsunami of bad writing.

[54] Deepa Gahlot of Rediff.com have the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and termed love story of Shakuntala and Dushyant as "So familiar from textbooks, comics, stage and screen versions".