Sivaji: The Boss is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action masala film co-written and directed by S. Shankar and produced by AVM Productions.

A. R. Rahman composed the music in his 100th milestone composition, while the art direction, cinematography and editing were handled by Thota Tharani, K. V. Anand and Anthony respectively.

Released on 15 June 2007, Sivaji received highly positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success by grossing ₹125-160 crore worldwide.

He aims to establish a non-profit trust called Sivaji Foundation, which includes a network of hospitals and educational institutions that serve the poor free of charge.

A highly influential political lobbyist and businessman, Adiseshan, who runs profit-making educational institutions and hospitals, sees Sivaji as a deadly competitor.

[16] In August 2005, Rajinikanth signed up for his next film which was to be produced by Chennai's oldest operative studio, AVM Productions, which was run by M. S. Guhan and M.

[17] After consulting Sivaji Ganesan's family to avoid any issues with the film's name, the project was subsequently announced on 24 August 2005.

[17] According to Rajinikanth's biographer Naman Ramachandran, the film was also made to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of the production company's founder, A. V.

[28] Actress Sunaina made her acting debut through this film in a special appearance; the scene however was later removed from the final cut.

[31][32] Suman was confirmed in March 2006 to play the role of Adiseshan after Amitabh Bachchan, Mohanlal and Prakash Raj were considered.

Shankar instructed one of the costume designers to give the character a spotless white dhoti, shirt, shoes, a Rolex watch and Ray-Ban sunglasses.

[38] Debate speakers Solomon Pappaiah and Pattimandram Raja were selected to play supporting roles, with the latter making his cinematic acting debut.

[11] Shankar, who also wrote the film's story and screenplay,[43] was paid a then record salary of ₹100 million (Indian rupees)[d] for the project.

[49] Manish Malhotra was responsible for designing the film's costumes,[50] while Anthony and Thota Tharani were the editor and art director respectively.

[54][55] The idea of shooting at Ramoji Film City was suggested to Shankar by Tharani who felt that the place offered a lot of scope for him to use his skills and experience as an art director.

Shankar chose the futuristic house concept, which consisted of three domes in the shapes of a square, a circle and a pyramid adjacent to one another.

[61] The music shop was designed in the Victorian architecture style, while the warehouse was constructed at AVM Productions with the fight sequence being filmed there as well.

[66] The "Style" segment was filmed in May 2006 at the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain,[3][67] as well as the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia[68] and the Kursaal in San Sebastian.

[69] The fair look of Rajinikanth's character in the segment was created using computer-generated imagery, which was performed by V. Srinivas Mohan, the head of the Chennai-based firm Indian Artists.

K. V. Anand re-shot every single movement of Rajinikanth with a British woman named Jacky, who was also one of the song's background dancers.

[70] In a scene, Rajinikanth and Shriya Saran imitated the dance from songs from three Tamil films starring Sivaji Ganesan, MGR and Kamal Haasan, respectively.

[32] To add more colour to the sequence, a 50-member team of Puli Kali artists from Thrissur were employed by Shankar as background dancers.

[citation needed] Filming of a key portion involving Rajinikanth and Vivek took place in the Victoria Public Hall building in Chennai.

[citation needed] For the climax scenes, which were filmed at the Magarpatta city SEZ towers, Rajinikanth tonsured his head.

[citation needed] Gopinath Rajendran of The New Indian Express compared the film's title character to Robin Hood for being a hero "who takes from the rich and passes it on to the poor".

[93] M. Satyamoorthy, on 9 July 2007, sought to stop the film being screened, claiming that it defamed the Indian National Congress, a political party, as well as its president, Sonia Gandhi, and the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.

"[104] A 2012 re-release, also known as Sivaji 3D, was created by re-mastering the original to Dolby Atmos and post-converting to 3D format and cutting half an hour of running time.

The overseas distributor Ayngaran International reported collections as follows: US$2,000,000, Canada $500,000, UK$750,000, Europe and Gulf $750,000, Malaysia $2,000,000, Singapore $750,000, Sri Lanka $1,250,000, Australia, New Zealand & Thailand $250,000.

[131][132] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu, in a review about the story, said that the lead character carrying out a rebellion against corruption was something "not be true to life".

[134] T. S. V. Hari of Hindustan Times said that the director, Shankar, was not creative enough for the film and added this by saying "Sivaji turns out to be a rehash of all his previous jingoistic claptrap efforts".