After a decade of research, the scientist Vaseegaran creates a sophisticated android robot with the help of his assistants, Siva and Ravi, to commission it into the Indian Army. He introduces the robot, named Chitti（英语：Chitti (character)）, at a robotics conference in Chennai. Chitti helps Sana, Vaseegaran's medical student girlfriend, cheat in her examination, then saves her from being assaulted by a group of thugs. Vaseegaran's mentor, Professor Bohra, is secretly engaged in a project to create similar android robots for a terrorist organisation, but has so far been unsuccessful.

Vaseegaran prepares Chitti for an evaluation by the Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (AIRD) Institute, which is headed by Bohra. During the evaluation, Chitti attempts to stab Vaseegaran at Bohra's command, which convinces the evaluation committee that the robot is a liability and cannot be used for military purposes. Vaseegaran's effort to prove Bohra wrong fails when he deploys Chitti to rescue people from a burning building. The robot saves most of them, including a girl named Selvi who was bathing at the time, but she is ashamed at being seen naked on camera and flees, only to be hit and killed by a truck. Vaseegaran asks for one month to modify Chitti's neural schema（英语：image schema） to enable it to understand human behaviour and emotions, to which Bohra agrees. While nearing the deadline, Chitti becomes angry with Vaseegaran, demonstrating to him that it can manifest emotions.

Chitti uses Sana's textbooks to successfully help Sana's sister Latha give birth to a child. Bohra congratulates Vaseegaran on the achievement and allows Chitti to pass the AIRD evaluation. Chitti develops romantic feelings for Sana after she congratulates Chitti by kissing it. When Vaseegaran and Sana realise this, Sana explains to Chitti that they are only friends. Saddened by Sana's rejection, yet still in love with her, Chitti deliberately fails an evaluation conducted by the Indian Army. Enraged, Vaseegaran chops Chitti into pieces, which are dumped by Siva and Ravi into a landfill site.

Bohra visits the site to retrieve Chitti, which has now reassembled itself, albeit in a damaged state. Bohra embeds a red chip inside Chitti while reconstructing it, converting it into version 2.0, which is more aggressive and unempathetic. It then gatecrashes Vaseegaran and Sana's wedding, kidnaps Sana, creates replicas of itself and kills Bohra. Using its robot army, Chitti occupies AIRD and causes mayhem in the city. After informing Sana that it has acquired the human ability to reproduce, Chitti wishes to marry her so that a machine and a human being can give birth to a preprogrammed child, but Sana refuses. It eventually finds Vaseegaran, who entered AIRD to stop it, and nearly kills him before the police appear. The ensuing battle between Chitti's robot army and the police personnel leads to a lot of property destruction and many casualties. Vaseegaran eventually captures Chitti using a magnetic wall and accesses its internal control panel, whereby he instructs all the other robots to self-destruct. He then removes Chitti's red chip, calming it.

In a court hearing, Vaseegaran is sentenced to death for the casualties and damages caused by the robot army, but Chitti explains that it was Bohra who caused its deviant behaviour and shows the court video footage of Bohra installing the red chip. The court releases Vaseegaran, while ordering that Chitti be dismantled. Left with no choice, Vaseegaran asks Chitti to dismantle itself. While saying goodbye, Chitti apologises to Vaseegaran and Sana, who forgive it, before dismantling itself.

The film's setting then shifts to 2030. Chitti is now a museum exhibit. A curious school student on excursion asks her guide why it was dismantled, to which Chitti responds, "Naan sinthikka arambichen" (I started thinking).

• Rajinikanth as Vaseegaran and Chitti（英语：Chitti (character)）^[10]
• Aishwarya Rai as Sana^[11]
• Danny Denzongpa（英语：Danny Denzongpa） as Bohra^[11]
• Santhanam（英语：Santhanam (actor)） as Siva^[11]
• Karunas（英语：Karunas） as Ravi^[11]
• Cochin Haneefa（英语：Cochin Haneefa） as the traffic police officer^[11]
• Kalabhavan Mani（英语：Kalabhavan Mani） as Pachaimuthu^[11]
• Delhi Kumar（英语：Delhi Kumar） as Vaseegaran's father^[11]
• Raaghav（英语：Raaghav） as the neighbourhood bully^[10]
• Devadarshini（英语：Devadarshini） as Latha, Sana's sister^[11]
• Revathi Sankaran（英语：Revathi Sankaran） as Vaseegaran's mother^[10]
• Sabu Cyril（英语：Sabu Cyril） as Shah^[12]
• Sugunthan（英语：Sugunthan） as the police inspector^[13]
• Shriya Sharma（英语：Shriya Sharma） as the curious student^[13]
• Chaams（英语：Chaams） as one of the barbers working at The Park Hotel（英语：The Park, Chennai）^[13]
• Devadas Kanakala（英语：Devadas Kanakala） as K. Bhajanlal, one of the customers at The Park Hotel^[13]

Following the completion of his first directorial venture in Hindi, Nayak（英语：Nayak (2001 Hindi film)） (2001), S. Shankar（英语：S. Shankar） announced his next project, Robot, which was to feature Kamal Haasan and Preity Zinta.^[14][15] The film was to be produced by the now-defunct company Media Dreams, a division of Pentamedia Graphics（英语：Pentamedia Graphics）.^[15][16] The film was reported to be a futuristic techno-thriller（英语：techno-thriller） set in Chennai in around 2200 or 3000 AD.^[17][18] Despite the completion of a photoshoot featuring Haasan and Zinta,^[19] the project was shelved as a result of scheduling conflicts with Haasan.^[20] Shankar consequently started work on Boys（英语：Boys (2003 film)） (2003).^[15]

After Boys, Shankar began work on his next feature starring Vikram（英语：Vikram (actor)）, which was initially reported by Rediff.com to be Robot revived,^[21] but was later revealed as Anniyan（英语：Anniyan） (2005).^[22][23] One month post the release of his action film Sivaji in June 2007, he approached Shah Rukh Khan for the lead in Robot. Khan was about to produce it under his own banner, Red Chillies Entertainment（英语：Red Chillies Entertainment）, but in October the same year the project was officially aborted due to creative differences between the two.^[24][25]

The project was revived in January 2008 with Eros International（英语：Eros International） and the London-based production company Ayngaran International（英语：Ayngaran International） willing to produce the film.^[16] The state government of Tamil Nadu granted tax exemptions for films titled in Tamil, resulting in the new production being renamed 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》.^[20] While Sujatha Rangarajan（英语：Sujatha Rangarajan） was originally assigned to write the dialogue for the film, Madhan Karky（英语：Madhan Karky） took over after Rangarajan's death in February 2008.^[19] In December 2008, Eros International withdrew from funding the project after financial difficulties caused by the box-office failure of Drona（英语：Drona (2008 film)） (2008) and Yuvvraaj（英语：Yuvvraaj） (2008),^[26] with the subsequent departure of Ayngaran International, which struggled with the global financial crisis of 2007–08.^[27] The film's production and release rights were sold to Sun Pictures（英语：Sun Pictures）.^[28]

In January 2008, Rajinikanth accepted the lead role in the film for a salary of 450 million (Indian rupees).^{[25][29][注 3]} Shankar rewrote the original script to suit Rajinikanth's acting style.^[9] In an interview with the Tamil channel Sun TV（英语：Sun TV (India)）, held shortly after the film's release in October 2010, Rajinikanth revealed that Shankar, following the release of his Indian（英语：Indian (1996 film)） in 1996, had approached and pitched three storylines for him to consider for his next venture. Rajinikanth was impressed with two of the scripts and agreed to star in the films, which became Sivaji and 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》. The third script narrated by Shankar focused on an aspiring bodybuilder; it eventually became I（英语：I (film)） (2015).^[31]

Although Aishwarya Rai was Shankar's original choice for the female lead in 2001, she declined it owing to a busy schedule and was replaced by Zinta.^[32] When Shankar revived the project with Rajinikanth,^[25] contenders for the part included Priyanka Chopra,^[33] Deepika Padukone,^[34] Shriya Saran and Rai, who was ultimately selected and paid 60 million.^{[35][36][注 3]} Rai's voice was dubbed by Savitha Reddy（英语：Savitha Reddy）.^{[37][注 4]}

Several actors were considered for the role of Professor Bohra, including Amitabh Bachchan,^[38] J. D. Chakravarthy（英语：J. D. Chakravarthy）,^[38] Sathyaraj（英语：Sathyaraj） and British actor Ben Kingsley,^[39][40] but it was Danny Denzongpa（英语：Danny Denzongpa） who eventually received it, making 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 his first film in Tamil.^[41] Dubbing for Denzongpa was provided by Kadhir.^[42] Comedians Santhanam（英语：Santhanam (actor)） and Karunas（英语：Karunas） were cast to portray Vaseegaran's assistants Siva and Ravi respectively.^[43]

The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman.^[44] Vairamuthu（英语：Vairamuthu）, P. Vijay（英语：P. Vijay） and Madhan Karky authored the lyrics for the songs.^[44][45] Manoj Bharathiraja（英语：Manoj Bharathiraja）, son of filmmaker P. Bharathiraja（英语：P. Bharathiraja）, was signed on to be an assistant director after he approached Shankar.^[40] Also working as assistant directors were Atlee（英语：Atlee (director)）,^[46] Shree and Karthik G. Krish.^[47][48] Sabu Cyril（英语：Sabu Cyril）, in addition to being the film's art director, made a guest appearance as Shah, an interpreter between Bohra and the terrorist organisation.^[12][49]

R. Rathnavelu（英语：R. Rathnavelu） was hired as the cinematographer after Ravi K. Chandran（英语：Ravi K. Chandran）,^[50] Nirav Shah（英语：Nirav Shah） and Thiru（英语：Thiru） were considered.^[51][52] Anthony（英语：Anthony (film editor)） was the film's editor.^[53] Yuen Woo-ping, known for his work in The Matrix trilogy and the Kill Bill films, was selected to be the stunt co-ordinator,^[54] while Legacy Effects（英语：Legacy Effects）, a visual effects studio based in the United States, were in charge of the prosthetic make-up（英语：prosthetic make-up） and animatronics in the film.^[54] Munich-based film technical company, Panther（英语：Panther (company)）, were responsible for the crane shot（英语：crane shot）s.^{[55][注 5]} The film's subtitle captioning was done by Rekha Haricharan.^[56]

Manish Malhotra（英语：Manish Malhotra） and Mary E. Vogt were chosen to design the film's costumes.^{[57][注 6]} Fifty-seven costumes were used for Rai, including a "Mexican tribal" look that she sported during the filming of the "Kilimanjaro（英语：Kilimanjaro (song)）" segment.^[58] According to make-up artist Banu（英语：Banu (make-up artist)）, no prosthetics were used for Rajinikanth to avoid bothering him by withholding his time on set.^[59] Additional make-up was by Vance Hartwell, an employee of Legacy Effects.^[60]

The visual appearance of Chitti was based on the G.I. Joe action figures. For Chitti's "villain robot" look, its hair was spiked and brown coloured lenses were used for its eyes, whereas for its "good robot" look, green coloured lenses were used.^[59] The wig used for Chitti's "villain robot" look had a silver streak in the middle, made out of Yak hair,^[61] while its leather jacket was designed by Vogt.^[61] To make Vaseegaran look mature, the team made Rajinikanth sport an Oakley beard.^{[注 7]} Suits made of copper were used for Chitti's costumes.^[63]

The residential section of the Incan city of Machu Picchu, which features in the song, "Kilimanjaro".

For Sabu Cyril's sets, Shankar required approximately twice as much studio floor space as for his previous film. After rejecting Ramoji Film City（英语：Ramoji Film City） for technical reasons, 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》's producer, Kalanithi Maran（英语：Kalanithi Maran）, took six months to set up three air-conditioned studio floors on land in Perungudi owned by Sun TV Network.^[64] Filming began on 15 February 2008 at AVM Studios（英语：AVM Productions） in Chennai.^[52] After the initial stages of filming, Shankar and Rathnavelu toured the world for three weeks, scouting for exotic filming locations.^[65] They visited Austria, Germany, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, looking for a backdrop to shoot the "Kilimanjaro" and "Kadhal Anukkal" segments,^[66] eventually deciding on Peru and Brazil.^[67][68] "Kilimanjaro" was filmed at the ruins of the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru, with some 100 Brazilian extras.^[66][67] It was choreographed by Raju Sundaram（英语：Raju Sundaram） and supervised by Fernando Astete, director of the Machu Picchu archaeological park.^[67][69] "Kadhal Anukkal" was filmed in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil.^[68]

The filming for Chitti's introduction to the international robotics conference was completed in December 2008 at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering（英语：Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering） and Vellore Institute of Technology（英语：Vellore Institute of Technology）, where more than 400 students were used as extras.^[70][71] Further footage was shot over five days at the Ennore Port（英语：Ennore Port） on the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines car carrier, Neptune Ace.^[72] An action sequence where Chitti saves Sana from thugs was filmed in Lonavla, under the supervision of the action choreographer Peter Hein（英语：Peter Hein）.^[73] Scenes featuring Rajinikanth as Chitti were captured over five days at the Perungudi Dump Yard in Chennai.^[74] Sabu Cyril told Uma Kannan of The New Indian Express that the sets for the climax sequence, which was filmed at Mayajaal（英语：Mayajaal）, consisted of a tar road and glass buildings which rose to 65英尺（20米）, and that aluminium composite panels（英语：Sandwich panel）, reported to have cost 50 million, were also used to design the sets.^{[75][76][注 8]}

The set for "Arima Arima（英语：Arima Arima）", a sequence choreographed by Prabhu Deva（英语：Prabhu Deva）,^[77] was designed and constructed by Cyril at Ramoji Film City.^[75] Filming of the number took place over 22 days in April 2009.^[77] Junior artists were employed by Rathnavelu to wear masks of Rajinikanth.^[78] For the sequence entitled "Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam", choreographed by Remo D'Souza（英语：Remo D'Souza） and featuring Rai and Rajinikanth as Chitti,^[79] three different sets were used: one of copper, one of gold and one in silver.^[75] The musical number, which was filmed in AVM Studios for eight days, was the last portion of the film's principal photography.^[79] D'Souza incorporated the popping style of street dances, but encountered difficulties in performing the dance movements in tandem with the robot, and with the restrictions created by the rigid costumes.^[79] Principal photography ended on 7 July 2010.^[80]

Impressed with the film's script, V. Srinivas Mohan（英语：V. Srinivas Mohan） became the visual effects supervisor in December 2007. He asked Shankar to increase the filming schedules by six months to include pre-production requirements.^[81][82] Both Mohan and Shankar visited several visual effects companies, including the New Zealand-based Weta Digital and the United States-based Industrial Light & Magic, Cafe FX（英语：Cafe FX） and Tippett Studio（英语：Tippett Studio） before partnering with Legacy Effects.^[81][83] The original Eros-Ayngaran visual effects budget was 700 million,^{[注 3]} but after Sun Pictures took over production, it was significantly reduced to 200 million.^{[注 3]} As a result, the visual effects team had to omit and alter some sequences, making Chitti wear sunglasses for most of the film to reduce the cost and difficultly of animating his eyes.^[84]

After a series of previsualisation（英语：Previsualization） tests, including a scene in which Chitti jumps on a train to save Sana, Mohan eventually decided to use the technique in 40 out of the 60 visual effects scenes featured in the film,^[81] consisting of 2,000 takes.^[85] Further previsualisation supervision was conducted by P. C. Sanath of Firefly Creative Studios, a visual effects company based in Hyderabad.^[82] 3D storyboards were constructed using 3D animation programs for every scene in the film and were shot from different angles.^[82] In an interview with Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu, Mohan said that all of the pre-production work took one-and-a-half years to complete.^[85]

Rathnavelu used the 435 Xtreme（英语：Arriflex 435#435 Xtreme） camera and also wrote a 1,600-page manual, in which he listed all of the possible angles from where he could film the characters Rajinikanth played.^[86][87] Legacy Effects and the Hong Kong-based visual effects companies Kinomotive Studios and Menfond Electronics took responsibility for the film's CGI work.^[85] To create the robots with Rajinikanth's appearance, a complete scan of his face in 3D digital format in all possible lighting conditions was conducted using the Doom Light Stage,^{[注 9]} so that his face could be replicated on the mannequins.^[82] The technique, according to Shankar, was previously used in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).^[89] The robot Chitti featured in the film was a mannequin made by a Legacy Effects team of 100 technicians in Los Angeles. For every robotic mannequin used, six puppeteers were employed to control the mannequin's movements.^[85]

《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 focuses on the battle between man and machine.^[90] Despite Shankar's claim that 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was a purely original idea,^[19] it has been compared to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, owing to the similar personae of Chitti and Frankenstein's monster, both of which turn against their respective creators.^[91][92] K. Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake, in their book Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas, noted the similarity between the two works, arguing that Chitti was "manipulated by Bohra to become a Frankenstein-like figure".^[93] Writing for The A.V. Club, Genevieve Koski observed, "The plot of 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 is essentially Frankenstein via [Isaac] Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics."^[8]

Director and film critic Sudhish Kamath（英语：Sudhish Kamath） called 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 "a superhero film, a sci-fi adventure, a triangular love story with a hint of the Ramayana", while remarking that 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》's similarities to The Terminator (1984) were "more than obvious. Not just visually—where we see the Superstar with one human eye and one scarred metallic eye but also intentionally spelt out when the bad robot announces that he has created Terminators."^[94] Kamath compared two of the film's robots to C-3PO and R2-D2, droids（英语：droid (Star Wars)） from the Star Wars film series, which was referenced in 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 when Vaseegaran refers to one of his creations as "R2".^[94]

Although Shankar initially claimed that 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 would be made for all audiences, including those lacking computer literacy,^[95] the film is influenced by and makes references to many scientific principles relating to the fields of engineering, computer science and robotics, including terabytes and Asimov's laws of robotics.^[96] Visual references are made to the science book（英语：science book）s A Briefer History of Time (2005) and Freakonomics (2005).^[29] In his book Visual Perception and Cultural Memory: Typecast and Typecast(e)ing in Malayalam Cinema, Sujith Kumar Parayil notes the similarities between Kalabhavan Mani's role in the film to the one Mani played in the Malayalam film Sallapam（英语：Sallapam） (1996).^[97]

For 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》's soundtrack and score, A. R. Rahman made use of the Continuum Fingerboard（英语：Continuum Fingerboard）, an instrument he had experimented with previously in the song "Rehna Tu" from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra（英语：Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra）'s drama film Delhi-6（英语：Delhi-6） (2009).^[98] The film also marked the debut of Rahman's daughter Khatija as a playback singer.^[99]

The soundtrack album to 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was released on 31 July 2010 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[100] The Tamil and Telugu versions were released by Think Music, while the Hindi version was released by Venus Music.^[101] Think Music purchased the release rights of the Tamil and Telugu versions of the album for 70 million.^{[102][注 8]} The album of the film's Telugu version, Robo, was released on 6 August 2010, while its Hindi version, Robot, was released on 14 August 2010.^[103][104] After the second day of release, the album's Tamil version reached the number one position in the Top 10 World Albums chart on iTunes, making it the first Tamil album to do so.^[105][106]

《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was released on 1 October 2010 in three languages—in Tamil as 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》, in Hindi as Robot and in Telugu as Robo.^[107][108] The original version was in Tamil, while the Hindi and Telugu versions were dubbed.^[107] The film was released in 2,250 theatres worldwide, including 500 theatres in Tamil Nadu,^[109] 350 theatres in Andhra Pradesh,^[109] 128 theatres in Kerala,^[110] 23 theatres in Karnataka, and 750 theatres in North India.^[106][111] With an estimated budget of 1.32—1.62 billion,^{[112][注 2][注 8]} 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was India's most expensive film（英语：List of most expensive Indian films） up to that point,^[113][114] surpassing the Hindi film Blue（英语：Blue (2009 film)） (2009), which was filmed on a budget of 750 million.^{[115][注 10]}

《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 became the first Tamil film to be released at the Colosseum kino（英语：Colosseum kino）, a Norwegian theatre complex in Oslo,^[116] and it was screened at the 21st Bath Film Festival（英语：Bath Film Festival）, held in the United Kingdom in 2011.^[117] Additionally, a version of the film, edited to a running length of two hours, was released in Japan in May 2012, and later screened at the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival, where it won a special award under the section "Winds of Asia–Middle East".^[118][119] By public demand, the original, unedited version was later released in that country.^[120]

The first poster for 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was released on 8 September 2008.^[121] The film's trailer was released on 11 September 2010, at the Sathyam Cinemas（英语：SPI Cinemas） theatre complex in Chennai.^[122] To promote 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》, AGS Entertainment（英语：AGS Entertainment） organised a festival from 25 September 2010 until its release date, in which they screened popular films of Rajinikanth at the company's theatre in Villivakkam（英语：Villivakkam）.^[123] In Coimbatore, the Department of Posts（英语：India Post） printed 100,000 post cards advertising the film.^[124] Sun Pictures invested a total of 500 million on promotional activities.^{[29][注 8]}

Advance bookings for the film began two weeks before the release date in the United States. In the Jackson Heights neighbourhood in New York, tickets were sold out within ten minutes of going on sale.^[125] In Kerala the distribution rights were sold for 50 million,^{[126][注 8]} while in Karnataka they were sold for 100 million.^{[127][注 8]} The distribution rights in Mumbai were sold to Shringar Films.^[128] In the United Kingdom, 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was released by Ayngaran International, while Robot was released by B4U Network（英语：B4U (network)）.^[2] DVD marketing in India was handled by Moser Baer（英语：Moser Baer）;^[129] Ayngaran International released the two-DVD set of the film in early 2011.^[130]

The novelist Aarur Thamizhnadan made a complaint with the Chennai Metropolitan Police（英语：Chennai Metropolitan Police） against the filmmakers in November 2010, stating that the producers plagiarised his 1996 novel Jugiba.^[131][132] Thamizhnadan demanded 10 million^{[注 8]} from the director and producers for damages and filed a case against Kalanithi Maran.^[133][134] In June 2011, the Madras High Court（英语：Madras High Court） dismissed the case after a petition filed by Maran denying the allegation was approved.^[134]

The daily newspaper Business Line（英语：Business Line） reported that 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 grossed 580 million from all versions in the opening weekend,^{[135][注 8]} and The Economic Times stated it netted 1.17 billion by the end of its opening week.^{[136][注 8]} According to a February 2015 report by Hindustan Times, the film has grossed ₹2.56 billion worldwide in its lifetime.^[137] Indo-Asian News Service stated in July 2015 that the film grossed ₹2.90 billion from both its original and dubbed versions.^{[7][注 8]} 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 became the top-earning Indian film of 2010 ahead of My Name Is Khan and Dabangg（英语：Dabangg） and became the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time at that point.^[138][139]

As of January 2018, 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 is the fourth-highest-grossing South Indian film（英语：Cinema of South India） of all time after S. S. Rajamouli's two-part historical fiction films Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) and Baahubali: The Beginning (2015),^[140][141] and Pa. Ranjith（英语：Pa. Ranjith）'s gangster drama Kabali (2016).^[142] Box Office India estimated that 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 netted 1.95 billion across India with the Tamil version netting 1.20 billion, the Telugu version netting 530 million and the Hindi version netting 220 million.^{[143][144][注 8]} The website estimated the overseas earnings of the film (including its dubbed versions) at approximately $12 million as of November 2010 with the Tamil version grossing $11 million and the remaining $1 million coming in from the Telugu and Hindi versions.^[138] 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 collected 1.05 billion in Tamil Nadu alone,^{[145][注 8]} a record it held for seven years before being surpassed by Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), which grossed 1.526 billion.^{[146][注 8]}

《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 received positive reviews from critics in India, with praise particularly directed at Rathnavelu's cinematography, Cyril's art direction, Srinivas Mohan's visual effects and Rajinikanth's performance as Chitti.^[147][148] Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Analysis gave the film a rating of four out of five stars and believed it had the "best special effects ever seen in a Tamil film" and that it was "one of the most entertaining Tamil films—across all languages—ever made."^[149] Both Nikhat Kazmi（英语：Nikhat Kazmi） of The Times of India and Kaveree Bamzai of India Today rated the film four out of five stars. Kazmi called it "the perfect getaway film".^[150] Bamzai praised Rajinikanth's acting in the film and said, "Rajni tells us why robot sapiens are superior to homo sapiens".^[151]

Both Anupama Chopra（英语：Anupama Chopra） of NDTV and Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 a rating of three-and-a-half stars out of five. Chopra criticised the film's portions in the second half, describing them as "needlessly stretched and cacophonous",^[152] but concluded her review by saying, "Robot rides on Rajinikanth's shoulders and he never stoops under the burden. Aided by snazzy clothes, make-up and special effects, he makes Chitti endearing."^[152] Srinivasan, however, said that Shankar "strikes the balance between science fiction and masala quotient."^[153] She concluded that, "Whichever way you look at it, Endhiran（原文如此） is one of those rare films that give you just enough material to pull you in, and enjoy yourself."^[153] Rajeev Masand（英语：Rajeev Masand） of CNN-News18 gave a rating of three out of five stars and said, "In the end, it's the fantastic special effects and an inspired performance from Rajnikant（原文如此） that keeps the film fresh."^[154] Mayank Shekhar（英语：Mayank Shekhar）, writing for Hindustan Times, rated it three stars and said, "Leave aside jokes running on the Internet. This film, just a few feet too long, is fine entertainment by itself."^[155]

Malini Mannath of The New Indian Express noted 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 for having "An engaging script, brilliant special effects, and a debonair hero who still carries his charisma effortlessly."^[91] Karthik Subramanian of The Hindu observed that actors "tend to get lost in special effects movies." Subramanian believed it was not the case in 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》: "Rajinikanth and [Aishwarya Rai] carry the movie on their shoulders, and considering the fact that much of the acting must have been in front of green screens, one has to say that nothing looks artificial right through."^[156] In contrast, Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times rated it two out of five stars, writing that "Shankar's work slips into a loud, overdramatic and exaggerated mess".^[157]

《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 has received a rating of 67% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on twelve reviews, with an average rating of 5.62/10.^[158] Lisa Tsering from The Hollywood Reporter said, "Rajinikanth is such a badass that Chuck Norris is afraid of him."^[159] She praised the filming locations, especially the "Kilimanjaro" song sequence, but criticised the length of the film's climax portions.^[159] Genevieve Koski from The A. V. Club believed that 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was "pretty good" and concluded that "if you prefer elaborate costumes and dance music mixed in with your killer-robot action, expect to enjoy up to an hour of 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》."^[8] Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle called 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 "the best apocalyptic sci-fi-romcom-melodrama-dance-off date movie of the year."^[160] Roger Moore, writing for the Orlando Sentinel（英语：Orlando Sentinel）, gave a mixed review, evaluating it as a "melodramatic kitschy Indian musical about a robot built for national defense but who discovers his human side."^[161]

Following the film's screening at the Mumbai International Film Festival（英语：Mumbai International Film Festival）, American film director Oliver Stone praised 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》's originality.^[162] Conversely, Joe Leydon（英语：Joe Leydon） of Variety believed that Shankar "riffs on everything" from Frankenstein to The Terminator, but suggested that the film was an "overwhelming mash-up of American-style, f/x-driven sci-fi spectacle and a Bollywood musical."^[163]

At the 58th National Film Awards（英语：58th National Film Awards）, 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 won for Best Special Effects（英语：National Film Award for Best Special Effects） and Best Production Design（英语：National Film Award for Best Production Design）.^[164] It won in three categories at the 58th Filmfare Awards South（英语：58th Filmfare Awards South） for Best Cinematographer（英语：Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer – South）, Best Art Director（英语：Filmfare Award for Best Art Director – South） and Best Costume Design.^[165] At the 5th Vijay Awards（英语：5th Vijay Awards）, it was nominated in fourteen categories and won in seven, including Best Villain（英语：Vijay Award for Best Villain） and Favourite Hero（英语：Vijay Award for Favourite Hero） for Rajinikanth, Favourite Film（英语：Vijay Award for Favourite Film） and Favourite Director（英语：Vijay Award for Favourite Director）.^[166] At the 17th Screen Awards（英语：Screen Awards）, the film won awards under the Best Special Effects（英语：Screen Award for Best Special Effects） and Spectacular Cutting Edge Technology categories.^[167]

影片上映后，导演K·巴拉亨德（英语：K. Balachander）给影片导演尚卡尔写了一封私人感谢信，称他是印度的詹姆斯·卡梅隆，形容影片是印度的《阿凡达》，太阳影业是印度的米高梅^[168]。影片是互联网电影资料库2010年50强电影榜单上的唯一一部泰米尔语电影^[169]。印度管理研究所亞美達巴德分校的研究生选修课“当代电影工业：商业角度”将影片列为研究案例^[169]。

影片的诸多段落，尤其是最为人知的“害群之马”段落^{[注 11]}，被后来《无间盗（英语：Mankatha）》（2011）^[171][172]、《巅峰（英语：Osthe）》（2011）^[173]、《雄狮2（英语：Singam II）》（2013）^{[174][注 12]}和泰卢固语电影《Dookudu（英语：Dookudu）》^[178]（2011）和《Nuvva Nena（英语：Nuvva Nena）》（2011）模仿^[179][180]。 影片中，七弟自己介绍时一般会提到自己的中央处理器时钟频率是（10¹² 赫兹），随机存取存储器上限是1泽字节（10²¹字节），对白为“你好，我是七弟，速度速度1太赫兹，内存1兆字节”，流行一时^[82][181]。七弟也亮相了2011年科幻片《超世纪战神（英语：Ra.One）》^[182]。

On Rajinikanth's 64th birthday, an agency named Minimal Kollywood Posters designed posters of Rajinikanth's films, in which the Minion characters from the Despicable Me franchise are dressed as Rajinikanth.^[183] The digital art was hand drawn on a digital pad by Gautham Raj.^[183] One of the posters depicted a mutated Minion, reminiscent of Chitti's "villain robot" look in 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》.^[183] In March 2015, Kamath, in his review of the science fiction film Chappie, compared its eponymous lead character to Chitti in terms of learning human emotions.^[184] Joe Russo, who co-directed Avengers: Infinity War (2018), said the sequence in 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 where numerous clones of Chitti come together to form a giant snake inspired a similar scene in Infinity War's predecessor Age of Ultron (2015) where the titular antagonist, Ultron and his clones come together to form a gigantic version of himself, but that the scene was cut from the final version of the film to accommodate its runtime.^[185][186]

In September 2015, writer Jeyamohan（英语：Jeyamohan） announced that the pre-production stage of a sequel to 《宝莱坞机器人之恋》 was "going on in full swing" and that principal photography would commence once Rajinikanth finished filming for Kabali, by the end of that year.^[187] Nirav Shah（英语：Nirav Shah） would be the cinematographer and A. R. Rahman would return as music director, while Muthuraj would handle the art direction. The sequel would be shot in 3D, unlike its predecessor which was shot in 2D and converted to 3D in post-production.^[188] Titled 2.0, the film entered production in December 2015 and was released on 29 November 2018. Rajinikanth reprised his role as Vaseegaran and Chitti with the additional cast played by Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson.^[189][190]