wanted to wear "glittering costumes" like in Bollywood films; hence, Rao did not cast her. After seeing Amala compere an awards function at Madras, enquiring about her and getting to know about her Kalakshetra background, he approached her and she accepted. Rao decided to cast Samir Khakhar as the drunk rich man, inspired by his drunkard character Khopdi from the Hindi television series Nukkad. Rao initially approached Amrish Puri to portray the contract killer, but he could not accept the offer due to unavailability of dates. Haasan's then-wife Sarika showed a photograph of Tinu Anand and successfully recommended him for the role. Pratap Potan, then known mainly for portraying dark characters, portrayed a comical character, the extramarital lover of Ramya's character. Rao initially wanted Bengali magician P. C. Sorcar Jr. to portray the female lead's magician father, but ultimately chose K. S. Ramesh after seeing his performance in a magic show on television in Bangalore, where the story is set. Farida Jalal, who was then visiting Bangalore, was cast as the female lead's mother. According to Rao, P. L. Narayana proved the "ideal choice" for playing the beggar. Filming Thota Tharani constructed a street set for the film beside the Hyland Hotel in Bangalore. The ramshackle room where the graduate lives, and the building itself, was constructed above the hotel. Most of the shooting was done in the Windsor Manor hotel in Bangalore. The management of Windsor Manor were not initially willing to let the film be shot there, but after Nagaraj told them that "the entire world will know about this hotel after the film", they agreed. The scenes where the graduate meets the beggar were shot at a bridge near Windsor Manor. According to Anand, Rao wanted the entire cast to be present at all times, regardless of whether they were filming scenes or not. As Ramesh was not as old as his character, Rao "made him look old". The killer's signature weapon is an ice dagger. For this reason, every night, an ice mould in the shape of a dagger was kept in the freezer; however, the ice dagger would often melt soon by morning because of the strong density lights being used in the shooting. Rao ultimately decided to use an acrylic dagger, which looked like an ice dagger. To capture background and ambient noise accurately, sequences were shot twice. The entire budget of the film