'Vada Chennai' is a 2018 gangster thriller movie directed by the prestigious filmmaker Vetri Maaran. It is the first installment in a planned trilogy starring Dhanush, director Ameer, Samuthirakani, Daniel Balaji, Kishore and Pawan in the primary roles. The blockbuster movie was backed by A. Subaskaran's Lyca Productions and Dhanush's Wunderbar Films with Vetrimaaran's Grass Root Film Company.

Actor Simbu was the first choice for the lead role Anbu but the film re-materialized in May 2015 with a new cast featuring Dhanush as the lead. After the success of the first part, the sequel 'Vada Chennai: Rise of Anbu' was expected to go on the floors. But the trilogy plan was minimised as duology reportedly. Even then the second part didn't commence due to financial reasons.

Later, Vetri Maaran has revealed in an interview that he is planning to make a prequel web series to the franchise on Netflix. Vetri said that the prequel series titled 'Rajan Vagaiyara' will focus on the life of Rajan character played by director Ameer in the origin film. Now, the latest speculation is that actor Ken Karunas has been roped in Rajan Vagaiyara to reprise the Rajan role in 15-24 age portions. Kollywood media sources read that Ken Karunas is taking up special training sessions to fit in the character in Rajan Vagaiyara. He had already starred as Dhanush's son Chidambaram in Vetri Maaran's direction in 'Asuran'. This is the second collaboration of the actor-director duo. On the work front, Vetri is busy with the post-production works of ‘Viduthalai’ featuring Soori and Vijay Sethupathi in the lead.