as Devadhevan Ramesh Khanna as Nagesh Soundarya Rajinikanth (special appearance in "Engae Pogutho Vaanam") Deceased actor Nagesh's likeness was recreated in the film, by means of a 3D model. Actors who sound like him were hired to voice his character while those who had a similar appearance to his, performed the character's performance capture scenes, portraying the role of Rana's maternal uncle. Production Development After the release of Enthiran (2010), Rajinikanth approached K. S. Ravikumar to help complete an animation feature that Soundarya Rajinikanth had begun in 2007. The project titled Sultan: The Warrior had run into problems with its production and Rajinikanth hoped that they could salvage the project by adding a historical back plot which would make the film partially animation and partially live action. Ravikumar then developed a story for fifteen days with his team of assistants and after being impressed by the script, Rajinikanth felt that Ravikumar's story should be an entirely separate film. Thus the team launched a venture titled Rana, to be jointly produced by Ocher Picture Productions and Eros International. The film would have featured cinematographer R. Rathnavelu and music would have been composed by A. R. Rahman. Principal photography, began on 29 April 2011. However, during the first schedule of filming, Rajinikanth fell ill on sets and was admitted to hospital where he was treated for dehydration and exhaustion for over a month, resulting in an indefinite postponement of filming. Further attempts for the film to continue production throughout the year failed. On 23 November 2011, for her maiden directorial project, Soundarya tweeted through her Twitter account, notifying followers to watch out for an official announcement. Following the delay, the team considered making Rana as an animation film but Rajinikanth was insistent that the film would be a live action film. Film producer Murali Manohar then suggested that an animation film could potentially be a sequel to Rana and thus the team began work on Kochadaiiyaan. A tentatively scheduled release period of August 2012 was also announced. The film was finalised to be a co-production of Eros Entertainment and Media One Global. Soundarya further stated that Ravikumar had worked with her father and herself on the script of the film. With regards to the film's title, Ravikumar claimed that it drew reference to an alternate name of Hindu deity Shiva, while also being partly inspired by the name of the Pandya Dynasty