The film was launched on July 15, 2010 at the Madras University campus. Genelia D'Souza who had acted opposite Vijay in Sachin was chosen for the role of a journalist in the film, and Hansika Motwani was chosen to portray Vijay's love interest, while Saranya Mohan would play sister to Vijay's character. Hollywood stunt director Tom Delmar joined the crew for choreographing the stunts in the film.Vijay even walked out of S. Shankar's Nanban reasoning that the two films demanded two completely different looks and he couldn't afford to lose his commitment towards his films. However, he joined in the shooting of the film later as the scenes starring the portagonist were reserved to be shot later. Santhanam and M. S. Baskar were chosen to play the comedy lead in the film. Vijay donated 100 cows to poor people in Udumalapet near Coimbatore as per Hindu tradition to pray for the success of the film.
The film has been widely reported to be a remake of the 2000 Telugu film Azad that starred late Soundarya as a journalist and Akkineni Nagarjuna as a villager, incidentally the roles essayed by Genelia D'Souza and Vijay, respectively. In 2001, Vijay had signed up to appear in a village action story titled Velan to be directed by Thirupathisamy, the director of Azad, though the film was postponed indefinitely after the death of the director. Director M. Raja claims that it's not a remake, but his own story.
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