J. V. Ramana Murthi as the Ayurvedic practitioner K. Natraj as Natarajan, the woodcutter Production Development Moondram Pirai was the first film produced by G. Thyagarajan and G. Saravanan's production company, Sathya Jyothi Films. Thyagarajan, who was looking after Sathya Movies owned by his father-in-law R. M. Veerappan, started Sathya Jyothi Films on his own to make "slightly offbeat films". Mani Ratnam and Thyagarajan had been friends since childhood as both their fathers were partners of Venus Movies. Ratnam introduced the director and cinematographer Balu Mahendra to Thyagarajan as Ratnam felt Thyagarajan would be the right person to produce the film that would later become Moondram Pirai. After hearing Mahendra's story, Thyagarajan's father liked the plot and said "the film will do well like Kalyana Parisu and asked me to proceed without any worry". After the project was finalised, Mahendra took one month time to complete the script and he worked on the budget alongside film's production manager Govind and fixed the budget to . A. Ramaswamy and D. Vasu were in charge of art direction and editing respectively. Casting While discussing about the casting, Mahendra suggested Kamal Haasan as the lead actor as he "would do excellent work". Haasan has stated that, when Mahendra narrated the story of Moondram Pirai to him, he listened to Mahendra for about twenty minutes before accepting the role of the male lead Cheenu. The role of Bhagyalakshmi / Viji was initially offered to Sripriya, who could not accept the role due to her prior commitments. It was Haasan who successfully suggested Sridevi for the role. Silk Smitha, who had done around 20 films by then and was considered only for performing item numbers, was cast as the headmaster's sexually excited wife, as Mahendra wanted a woman who was "sexy and at the same time a rustic beauty". Poornam Viswanathan was initially reluctant to portray the headmaster as it deviated from the character roles he was then known for, but after convincing by Mahendra, agreed. Filming Principal photography began with a puja at Prasad Studios. Moondram Pirai was predominantly shot in Ooty and Ketti, a small town situated close to the former. Shooting also took place in Bangalore. Mahendra shot the montage shots for the songs "Poongatru" and "Kanne Kalaimaane" simultaneously. The interior shots of "Kanne Kalaimaane" were shot within two days with Mahendra "would shoot the exterior portions while we were moving from