them. The gesture, which was already effective in Annamalai, prompted Krissna to extend the screen time of the shot. Krissna wanted Rajinikanth to sport a dress that would make him look slightly unkempt in appearance, but Rajinikanth finished the sequence in a smartly-tailored uniform and told Krissna that the audience would not find it odd. The filming of the song took place at the open space at Vijaya Vauhini Studios in Madras, the same area where Hotel Green Park is present; the song was completed with a hundred back-up dancers used for it in four days. Choreographers Kalyan and Ashok Raj were part of the back-up dancers for the song. In one of the action sequences involving the protagonist in a face-off against the antagonist's henchmen, the dialogue Naan oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna madhiri (Saying it once is equal to my saying it a hundred times) is spoken. The first half of the film was shot for twenty-three days at a stretch. Regarding the dialogue's development, Rajinikanth told Balakumaran that the dialogue had to be simple yet effective, as it would be used in a sequence where another side of the protagonist was revealed. On the day when the sequence which featured the dialogue was to be shot, Rajinikanth came up with the dialogue, which was originally spoken by him as Naan oru vaatti sonna, nooru vaatti sonna madhiri, which impressed Balakumaran and Krissna. Before the take, Rajinikanth, who repeatedly rehearsed the dialogue, told Krissna that the word "thadava" sounded more effective than "vaatti", and suggested Krissna use "thadava" instead of "vaatti". Balakumaran initially disagreed with Rajinikanth and Krissna as he felt that "vaatti" was fine and did not need changing. Rajinikanth then spoke both the versions of the dialogue and convinced Balakumaran to change "vaatti" to "thadava". The dialogue had such an impact on everyone present at the set that, in the break that followed, everyone started using it one way or another. The dialogues occur only five times in the film. The scene where Manikkam gets beaten up to protect his sibling and the following sequence where he beats up the antagonist in turn, was suggested to Krissna by Raju, the choreographer for both the stunt sequences. Ramalingam, the son of R. M. Veerappan, informed Krissna that Veerappan wanted to meet him. Krissna had finished shooting the sequence where Manikkam gets beaten up by Indiran after