Naam Moovar was the first film for which Mahendran wrote the story.[6] K. R. Balan, who was a friend of M. G. Ramachandran, decided to produce a film after being impressed by the script of Mahendran with P. Madhavan as director. However four days after the shoot, Madhavan left the film as he could not handle such a different plot and Mahendran left the sets and went to his village without informing anyone. A few days later, Balan wrote a letter inviting him to return to Madras; he insisted Mahendran to add more commercial elements to the script and made the editor Jambulingam to direct the film to which Mahendran agreed.[7]
Soundtrack
Music was by S. M. Subbaiah Naidu and lyrics were written by Vaali.[8] The song "Pirantha Naal Indru" became hugely popular and was often played in birthday shows in Ceylon Radio.[9]
Naam Moovar was released on 5 August 1966.[10]Kalki gave the film a mixed review, but appreciated the performance of Nagesh, Ravichandran and Jaishankar.[11] The film became successful at box-office.[7]