The Leader) is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film[3][4] directed by A. L. Vijay and produced by Vendhar Movies.

The film stars Vijay in the titular role, alongside Amala Paul, Sathyaraj, Santhanam, Abhimanyu Singh, Ragini Nandwani, Nassar and Rajeev Pillai.

In the film, a dancer in Australia takes over his father's duty as a crime boss in Mumbai after his death.

The film, which commenced production in November 2012 in Mumbai, was released on 8 August 2013 on the occasion of Eid-ul Fitr.

Suddenly, that night, Ramadurai's house gets attacked by his opposite gang, run by a politician named Bhadra.

2013: Vishwa is a dancer who lives in Sydney and manages a water distribution business in the name of Ganga with his childhood friend Logu and his dance team members.

Ramadurai is a crime boss who fights for the rights of migrated Tamilians and also keeps in contact with Vishwa as he grows up and lies to him about his profession.

They leave for Mumbai, where Vishwa finds out about Ramadurai's true profession and that he is hiding due to several false charges registered against him by his arch-enemy Bhima, Bhadra's son.

Vishwa also finds out that Meera and her father are Crime Branch officers who lured him to Mumbai so that they could arrest Ramadurai.

Ramadurai gets arrested, but just after he enters the police van, a bomb planted by Bhima in the vehicle explodes, killing him.

Vishwa arrives at the scene and saves several others, including a Bhojpuri woman named Gowri, whose marriage became nullified due to the riots.

Vishwa and his gang manage to reclaim the tape from the pickpocketer and make it public, leading to Bhima's arrest.

When Ranga's son hears about his father's betrayal, he becomes enraged and drives the car into a petroleum tanker, killing them both.

[12] Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Yami Gautam were initially approached for the lead female role.

[13][14] Later Amala Paul with TV actress Ragini Nandwani was selected as the main female leads.

[28] Ragini Nandwani, who plays a North Indian, stated that all of her film sequences were shot in Mumbai over 25–30 days.

[40] Oneindia said GV Prakash Kumar has composed the songs keeping new-age audience in mind.

In all, GV Prakash has redefined music crafted for dance and rated 3.75 / 5 – Energy packed album.

"[42] Thalaivaa distribution rights for the United States and Canada were bought by Bharat Creations.

[45] Prior to Vijay's birthday on 21 June a theatrical film trailer was released by Sony Music India on their YouTube channel.

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV for a record sum of ₹15 crore (US$1.7 million).

[48] In UK "Thalaivaa" made an impressive start earning ₹1.14 crore (US$130,000) (£1,21,249) from 36 screens in the opening weekend.

The film has become ninth highest grosser of all time in Malaysia's box office in just 10 days collection.

[52] Baradwaj Rangan of the Hindu wrote "The director gets a lot of things right...this film has been made with some integrity, with respect for the story being told (and, to some extent, the audience too).

But the one who makes this arduous journey enjoyable is Santhanam, whose poker-faced humour provides relief in a largely grim story.