king Kochadaiyan Ranadhiran, and that the plot would be a fictional account with small references to Indian history. The title's etymology was defined by Vairamuthu who deconstructed it into its root words, which collectively meant "king with a long, curly mane." The director clarified that Kochadaiiyaan was not related to the same-titled history series being published by the Tamil magazine Kumudam. When rumours circulated that the temporarily shelved feature Rana was being remade as Kochadaiiyaan, Ravikumar denied these rumours saying, "Kochadaiyaan has nothing to do with Ranadheeran or Rana." Latha Rajinikanth also clarified that the film would serve as a prequel to Rana. In October 2013, the name of the film was changed from Kochadaiyaan to Kochadaiiyaan on Rajinikanth's request citing numerological reasons. Casting For the female lead role, Trisha was initially approached, but sources confirmed later that she was not part of the film. It was then rumoured that Asin and Vidya Balan were being considered for the role, since producers preferred a Bollywood actress. Soundarya approached Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif in January 2012, who was not able to clear her schedule for the film and the team reapproached Balan. Despite reports that Kaif was finalised, Deepika Padukone, who was slated to pair with Rajinikanth in Rana, took up the offer in February 2012, marking her debut in Tamil cinema. Padukone was paid a salary of for shooting only for two days in the film. According to Soundarya, she was "quite relieved to not be wearing make-up for a film for the first time in her career." Although reports of November 2012 suggested that Padukone would dub her own voice for the Tamil version, it was later announced that she would dub only for the Hindi version as the dialogues required authentic Tamil pronunciations. Hence, Savitha Reddy dubbed the voice for Padukone in the Tamil version. In January 2014, it was revealed that Mona Ghosh Shetty had dubbed Padukone's voice for the Hindi version, because the actress was unavailable during the dubbing schedules. Shetty had earlier dubbed for Padukone's debut in Om Shanti Om (2007). The film began to increase its casting profile after Malayalam actor Prithviraj was rumoured to have been signed to play an important role in the film. The rumour was falsified following the inclusion of Aadhi, who was known for his lead-role performances in Mirugam and Eeram, in the cast; when he confirmed his presence