Uttama Villain was originally titled Bitter Chocolate. In an interview to Kungumam, Kamal Haasan said, “Charlie Chaplin and Nagesh can make the audience laugh and cry. Like Punnagai Mannan and Server Sundaram, Uttama Villain has both comedy and tragedy. So, I thought Bitter Chocolate will be a relevant title. But then I realised I would be blamed for not using a Tamil title, and we settled for Uttama Villain.”
Kamal Haasan added, “Again, ‘villain’ is an English word. Hence we included a dialogue in the film. ‘Mal yudhdham panravan mallan. Vil yudhdham panravan villain.’ No Tamil teacher can find fault with the title now. I can show references from Kurinji Paattu.”