in the project, he remarked that working with Rajinikanth was "a realisation of a dream that he has had since childhood". Sneha was reported to be finalised for a supporting role, with the actress confirming her presence in the film in December 2011. She, however, opted-out a couple of months later citing conflicts in her schedule and Rukmini Vijayakumar was signed in her place. R. Sarathkumar accepted Soundarya's offer for an important role in the film while veteran actor Nassar was recruited in the film as well for a supporting role. Furthermore, Shobana and Lakshmi Manchu were said to be considered for a role in the film. Soundarya confirmed that the former was added to the cast saying that she was the "only choice for the role" as the character was written keeping her in mind. Soundarya disclaimed the rumour that Aishwarya Rai was chosen to do a guest appearance in the film. Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff was also approached for an antagonistic role. Shroff immediately gave his consent, when the cast and the technical scope of Kochadaiiyaan were revealed to him. Reports claimed that the film would feature late actors like Nagesh, P. S. Veerappa, M. N. Nambiar, S. A. Ashokan, and R. S. Manohar recreated through sophisticated animation techniques, although it was later revealed that only Nagesh was recreated for the film. According to Soundarya, "The biggest triumph for Kochadaiiyaan was bringing back late comedy actor Nagesh to the screen." Peter Hein was chosen as the film's action choreographer, while A. R. Rahman agreed to compose the film's background score and soundtrack. Soundarya chose Saroj Khan, Raju Sundaram, Chinni Prakash and his wife Surekha Chinni Prakash, and Sivashankar to choreograph the songs. Soundarya invited art professionals to send their work as she was forming an art department for Kochadaiiyaan. She chose 42 students from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai for the task, besides 50 experienced persons from the Jacob College of Fine Arts. 60 concept artistes were already reportedly working for the film. Design Neeta Lulla worked on the looks of each character, including the lead role portrayed by Rajinikanth. According to Lulla, the project required a lot of research. Around 150 costumes per character were designed on paper and out of those, 25 costumes were selected and detailed. She also created a range of 20 to 30 looks especially for Rajinikanth's suit of armour as