In the late 1990s, Manivannan attempted to make a film starring Sathyaraj, Prabhu and Livingston together titled Makkal Nanban. The film failed to take off, and he moved on to make Aandan Adimai.[3][4]
The film was released on 14 November 2001.[7] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote "Aandaan Adimai means well and if the incidents brought in had been presented with force the film may have made an impact."[8] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "Though one should commend the director for making a sincere attempt to tackle a controversial problem, one wishes the script was better crafted and the scenes had more depth".[9] Visual Dasan of Kalki praised for handling the subject without any campaigning tone, Ilayaraja's music, Shankar's cinematography but panned the editing.[10]