Director Balaji Tharaneetharan's Baththa, starring Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role, has opened in theatres to positive reviews from critics and audiences. The common sentiment among viewers following the film's release has been that Tamil cinema is delivering one banger of a film after another, referring to the consecutive releases of Modha Rathri, Dorothy, and now the Vijay Sethupathi starrer.
On the day of its release, the film earned 1.73 crore from theatres in India, according to data from the box office tracker Sacnilk. On the subsequent day, however, the Baththa box office collection jumped to 4.88 crore. It is worth noting that the approximately twofold increase in the collection came on Friday, despite the number of shows coming down for the film thanks to new releases across languages on the day. The positive feedback and Friday being a national holiday, thanks to Gandhi Jayanti, have contributed to the increase in the collection for the film.
Baththa stars Vijay Sethupathi as a dreaded gangster who finds himself locked in an isolated restroom at a school by a boy (Sai Prithvi Raj). The film also stars Lijomol Jose, Arjun Chidambaram and Ajay Ghosh. It has brought Balaji Tharaneetharan and Vijay Sethupathi back together after collaborations on 2012's Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom and 2018's Seethakaathi. Audiences say that the film brings Vijay Sethupathi back to a fun entertainment zone reminiscent of his late 2010 films.
The film is produced by Murad Khetani, Priya Atlee, Alok Jain and Ajit Andhare, as well as being presented by Atlee. On the technical front, it has music by young sensation Sai Abhyankkar, cinematography by Selva Kumar SK, editing by R Kalaivanan, and production design by T Muthuraj.
