Maharaja
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nithilan Swaminathan
Written by	Nithilan Swaminathan
Dialogues by	Nithilan Swaminathan Raam Murali [1]
Produced by	Sudhan Sundaram Jagadish Palanisamy
Starring	Vijay Sethupathi Anurag Kashyap Mamta Mohandas
Cinematography	Dinesh Purushothaman
Edited by	Philomin Raj
Music by	B. Ajaneesh Loknath
Production companies	The Route Think Studios Passion Studios
Distributed by	see below
Release date	14 June 2024
Running time	141 minutes [2]
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹20 crore [5]
Box office	est. ₹107 crore [6] [7]

Maharaja ( transl.  The Great King) ^[a] is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film ^[8] directed by Nithilan Swaminathan, who co-wrote the script with Raam Murali. It is jointly produced by The Route, Think Studios and Passion Studios. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi in the titular role, alongside Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, Natarajan Subramaniam, Abhirami Gopikumar, Singampuli, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Sachana Namidass, Manikandan and Bharathiraja.

The film was officially announced in February 2023 under the tentative title VJS50, as it is Sethupathi's 50th film as the lead actor. Principal photography commenced the same month, predominantly taking place in Chennai throughout a single schedule. The official title was announced in July, coinciding with the filming being wrapped and Think Studios joining as co-producers. The film has music composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, cinematography handled by Dinesh Purushothaman and editing by Philomin Raj.

Maharaja was released worldwide on 14 June 2024 to positive reviews from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, Philomin's editing and Swaminathan's writing and direction. It had the highest opening weekend and emerged as the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Maharaja is a quiet man, working as a barber in Ramki Saloon in Chennai. One day, a truck slams into his house, leading to his wife's death. His daughter, Jothi, survives when a dustbin accidentally falls and covers her. Maharaja and Jothi name the dustbin "Lakshmi" out of affection.

One day, Maharaja visits the local police station to report a robbery, citing that Lakshmi has been robbed, much to the amusement of the cops. He recounts the incident: an armed gang raided his house, attacked him, and took Lakshmi. The police do not want to invest effort in finding an empty dustbin but accept once he promises a bribe of ₹5 lakhs for the culprits. They rope in Nallasivam, a convict turned informant.

Past (2009): Selvam and Sabari are a duo that raids houses, rapes women, and kills the victims. One day, Sabari informs Selvam that their crimes are in the newspaper. Selvam happens to be in Ramki Saloon for a beard trim during the phone conversation, and suspects that Maharaja overheard. He leaves but forgets a gold chain at the saloon that he wants to gift his baby daughter Ammu. Maharaja visits Selvam's house to return it but the police simultaneously arrive. They gun down Sabari and arrest Selvam, who believes that Maharaja ratted him out.

Present (2024): In the present, a delinquent named Dhana works in a car garage; Maharaja witnesses him get in a fight at a bar. Meanwhile, Nallasivam agrees to act as the perpetrator so as to "solve" the case. The police ask Maharaja over the phone to narrate the incident again so that Nallasivam can act accordingly.

Maharaja recounts the incident but a flashback depicts the actual event, revealing that the incident happened not to him but to Jothi. Jothi had returned home from sports camp while he was at work. Three men revealed to be Selvam, Dhana, and Nallasivam, are in the house to kill him. Selvam still believes he ratted him out 14 years ago and vowed revenge, but Maharaja isn't home. Instead, they physically assault Jothi and Nallasivam and Dhana rape her multiple times. Jothi is hospitalized. Back home, a fallen receipt from Dhana leads Maharaja to the aforementioned bar fight Dhana was in. Dhana reveals that one of his accomplices is inside the police station itself before Maharaja beheads him. This is when he goes to the police station, as shown in the beginning, and invents a story about how his dustbin was stolen.

In the present, Inspector Varadharajan and his team takes Nallasivam, now rather flustered, to Maharaja's home to return the dustbin. Varadharajan then reveals that his team had discovered Nallasivam's involvement in the rape of Jothi while investigating Dhana's death. Thus, they carried out the ruse of bringing him to Maharaja for vigilante justice, giving Maharaja the freedom to punish him. Maharaja kills him, but not before finding out who the third accomplice is.

He arrives at the construction site where Selvam works, incapacitates him, and brings Jothi to him as per her wish. Jothi tosses a bag of jewelry at his face, assuming he had come to their home for it. Selvam finds in the jewelry the gold chain he had bought for Ammu on her birthday – the very one that Maharaja had come to return so many years earlier.

The full scene from when Maharaja's wife died in the beginning is revealed with more context. After Selvam's arrest, Maharaja, his wife, and baby had come to Selvam's wife Kokila's new house to return the chain. When Maharaja had gone to buy Ammu a gift from the shop across the street, a truck rammed into Kokila's house, killing everyone but Ammu, who was saved by the dustbin Lakshmi. Maharaja adopts Ammu, changes her name, and raises her as his own daughter. In the present, Selvam sees a scar on Jothi's shoulder, the same one as on baby Ammu, and realises that he had been unwittingly complicit in the rape and assault of his own daughter. Out of guilt, he throws himself off the building and dies as Jothi leaves with Maharaja and her teacher.

After the success of Kurangu Bommai (2017), Nithilan Swaminathan was signed by Sudhan Sundaram's Passion Studios to direct his next directorial under their production. ^[12] However, the project was in development hell for several years due to unknown reasons. Nithilan then narrated the script to G. Dhananjayan, who suggested to the director that he should narrate it to Vijay Antony, which he did and impressed the actor. ^[13] Nithilan, however, had to receive a No-objection certificate (NOC) from Sundaram's production house. The company was however not in favor of passing the project to another house, therefore not giving the NOC. Soon after, the company then stated that they would narrate the script to Vijay Sethupathi, and if he denies being part of the film, they would pass the project. ^[14]

Sethupathi, who was impressed by the script, agreed to be part of the film, leading to him replacing Antony. Sundaram's company made a public announcement on 1 February 2023, confirming the project. The project would signify as Sethupathi's 50th film as a lead actor. ^[15] Tentatively titled VJS50, principal photography began shortly after a muhurat puja held the same day at a film studio in Chennai with the presence of the film's cast and crew. ^[16] Jagadish Palanisamy's The Route and Think Studios later joined as co-producers. In early April, Sundaram stated that fifty of eighty-five filming days were completed, and only ten days were remaining for Sethupathi. ^[17] On 12 July, in addition to the principal photography wrapping, the film's official title, Maharaja, was announced by the production houses. ^[18]

Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas and Natarajan Subramaniam were announced to play the lead roles alongside Sethupathi, while Divya Bharathi, Abhirami, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Manikandan, Singampuli, Bharathiraja, Vinod Sagar and P. L. Thenappan would appear in the supporting roles. ^[19] Dubbing works were completed by 31 December 2023. ^[20]

The music and background score is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, in his first collaboration with Sethupathi; second with Saminathan after Kurangu Bommai; ^[21] and his fourth Tamil film after Kurangu Bommai, Richie (2017), and Nimir (2018). ^[22] The first single "Thayee Thayee", sung by Sid Sriram and written by Vairamuthu, was released on 7 June 2024. ^[23] The second single "Raja Paya Onnu" was released on 15 June 2024, after the film's release. ^[24]

Maharaja was theatrically released on 14 June 2024 in theatres. ^[25] Apart from its original Tamil language, it was also dubbed and released in Telugu. ^[26] A press screening was held two days prior to the release, 12 June. ^[27] It was initially planned by the makers to release in May 2024, but was later shifted to June due to unspecified reasons. ^[28] The film was premiered in Los Angeles on 28 June 2024, as it was selected as one of the closing night selections at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. ^[29]

NVR Cinemas bought the distribution rights of the film for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. ^[30]

The digital streaming rights were acquired by Netflix and the satellite rights by Star Vijay. ^{[31] [32]} The film was premiered on Netflix from 12 July 2024. ^{[33] [34]}

Maharaja received positive reviews from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, Philomin's editing, Swaminathan's screenplay and direction. ^{[35] [36]}

Arjun Menon of Rediff.com gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is a surprisingly novel outing, rejuvenating the tired tropes of revenge films with a morally challenging revelation in the final hour, that compensates for the little contrivances in the writing." ^[37] Manikandan KR of Times Now gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is a fairly good revenge/investigative drama that primarily works because of fine performances from its entire cast and some exceptional work by its stuntmen and stunt choreographer." ^[38] Goutham S of Pinkvilla gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Vijay Sethupathi stands out in the action-packed revenge flick with a well-written screenplay by Nithilan Swaminathan". ^[39] Rakesh Tara of ABP News gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is an ambitious attempt to blend serious societal issues with commercial cinema elements. While it succeeds in parts, particularly through strong performances and engaging music, it falls short in delivering a cohesive and compelling narrative." ^[40]

Roopa Radhakrishnan of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Vijay Sethupathi is wonderful in his 50th film, and he has well-written role at his disposal." ^[41] Anusha Sundar of OTTPlay gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is a film that feeds you information in every frame and second, so losing a grip on it might leave you unable to understand when the knots are tied." ^[42] Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu wrote "Maharaja is yet another sign of the serious filmmaker Nithilan is, and shows us how a good writer can convert even a dated idea into a gripping big-screen experience." ^[43] Latha Srinivasan of Hindustan Times wrote "Director Nithilan Swaminathan and Vijay Sethupathi have delivered a film that’s definitely worthy of your time." ^[44] Swathi P Ajith of Onmanorama wrote "Maharaja is undoubtedly a thrilling revenge drama that deserves to be watched in theatres." ^[45]

Janani. K of India Today gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja has a lot going on. Sadly, the hits and misses are not proportional, with the latter having the upper hand. These good moments get buried under dark humour, which hardly works, and many other shortcomings." ^[46] B. V. S. Prakash of Deccan Chronicle gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Director Nithilan deserves a pat since he makes the girl victim stronger and determined who wants to meet scrupulous characters and question them for their heinous act face-to-face and throws up another twist in the end." ^[47] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of The Indian Express gave 2/5 stars and wrote "The overarching problem with Maharaja is its ‘wannabe’ nature to come across as a gritty, dark, and emotional rollercoaster. It is more concerned about how it wants to come across than what it really is." ^[48]

Maharaja grossed ₹4.7 crore (US$560,000) on its opening day. ^[49] The film earned ₹7.75 crore (US$930,000) on the second day and ₹9 crore (US$1.1 million) the third day. ^{[49] [50]} The film surpassed Garudan to become the third biggest opening for a Tamil film in 2024, behind Captain Miller and Aranmanai 4. ^[51] It grossed an estimated ₹52.6 crore (US$6.3 million) on its opening weekend of three days, becoming the highest opening weekend for a Tamil film in 2024. ^[52] On its fourth day, the film crossed ₹48.50 crore (US$5.8 million) from India, bringing its worldwide gross to ₹50 crore (US$6.0 million). ^{[53] [54]}

The film's worldwide collection crossed ₹66 crore (US$7.9 million) globally in five days earning ₹60 crore (US$7.2 million) from Tamil Nadu. ^[55] It grossed ₹77 crore (US$9.2 million) in the six days of its release. The film became the fastest worldwide grosser for a Tamil film in 2024 and the fastest film of Sethupathi to reach the ₹50 crore mark. ^[9] The film grossed ₹63.50 crore (US$7.6 million) globally in seven days, becoming the highest grossing Tamil film of 2024 in its opening week. ^[56] The film collected over ₹70 crore (US$8.4 million) worldwide and over ₹48 crore (US$5.8 million) from the Indian box office in nine days. ^[57] It crossed the ₹80 crore mark at the box office worldwide in the 10 days of its release, grossing ₹81.8 crore (US$9.8 million). ^[58]

After the success of the film, it was announced that Aamir Khan's Aamir Khan Productions had acquired the Hindi adaptation rights of the film, with the actor portraying Vijay Sethupathi's role. ^[59]

• Maharaja at IMDb 
• Maharaja at Rotten Tomatoes