Kamal Haasan's next film has been titled Sandiyar, and the Tamil movie will be directed by Su Arun Kumar, who made Chithha in 2023 and Veera Dheera Sooran in 2025. The title carries history. In 2003 Kamal Haasan launched a film under the same name, but it was forced to change course after a political objection, and it was released as Virumandi. The makers announced the new title on Friday, 6 November 2026, about two months after the film was first announced, with a poster of the actor in an intense, rugged look standing next to an old vehicle with blood marks.
The case for reclaiming the name is that it signals confidence. Kamal Haasan's production house, Raaj Kamal Films International, is producing the film, Anirudh Ravichander is composing the music and Anbariv are the stunt directors, according to The Hindu. The project was first announced on 3 September 2026 with a still from a photoshoot, and Hollywood Reporter India noted at the time that Arun Kumar is known for Chithha and Veera Dheera Sooran. Virumandi itself was released on 14 January 2004, so returning to the original title can be read as completing a story that was cut short rather than provoking a new one. Kamal Haasan, whose last release was Thug Life, now has a film in which his salt-and-pepper beard and blood-stained surroundings suggest a hard-edged action drama, and the poster is meant to set the tone.
The counter-argument is that the title was controversial for reasons that have not gone away. In 2003, Puthiya Tamilagam Party founder K. Krishnaswamy objected, saying the word valorised dominant upper-caste groups and would revive the aruval, or sickle, culture, and the shooting was halted. Kamal Haasan tried to meet the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who did not grant him an audience immediately and later told journalists that "protracted" police protection could not be given to a film unit that, in her words, "deliberately chooses a controversial subject." He eventually dropped the title. The actor's most recent release, Thug Life, directed by Mani Ratnam, failed at the box office in 2025, with fans and critics disappointed, even though the reunion of the Nayakan combination after several years had raised massive expectations, so a fresh controversy could be a distraction for a film that needs a clean opening.
The announcement matters for Tamil cinema because it revives an old debate about who decides what a film can be called. The 2003 episode showed how a single word in a title could halt a shoot and bring a chief minister into the argument. Kamal Haasan has chosen to return to a name that once cost him a shoot, which will test whether the climate has changed in 23 years, and how the makers will handle objections if they return.
For now the poster has raised expectations and questions in equal measure. Sandiyar will be judged by its content, but the title has already ensured that people will talk about it before a frame has been shot or released.