the film's lack of resemblance to his screenplay. Rajinikanth told Ravikumar he did not want him to watch the film to avoid getting "inspired". Though Ravikumar took enough liberties to suit the tastes of Tamil-speaking audiences, the remake retained the original's core premise of a boss and his worker falling in love with the same woman and several other plot points such as the worker and his lover losing their way and ending up in a new land. New plot details and characters were added, including the protagonist's zamindar father and flashback scenes revolving around him. According to Kalaipuli S. Thanu, he was originally going to produce the film, but could not due to "various reasons". It was soon picked up by K. Balachander's Kavithalayaa Productions, and produced by Rajam Balachander and Pushpa Kandaswamy. The cinematography was handled by Ashok Rajan, and editing was handled by K. Thanikachalam. Casting Rajinikanth played two roles: Muthu and his unnamed father. Meena was Ravikumar's first choice for the role of Ranganayaki. Though her mother was concerned about the amount of screen time Meena would receive when compared to Subhashri (who was cast as Padmini), Meena took the role. According to Madhuvanti Arun, Rajinikanth offered her to do the role, but she was not selected because she was considered too young. Arvind Swamy was initially approached to portray Raja Malayasimman but was hesitant to act the scene where his character would slap Muthu. He was a fan of Rajinikanth and felt slapping the actor would anger his fans. Jayaram was later approached for the role but hesitated for the same reason. Though Jayaram suggested making changes to the scene, Ravikumar refused to do so. Sarath Babu was finally cast for the role, at Rajinikanth's suggestion. Vadivelu and Radha Ravi were cast as Valayapathy and Ambalathar, characters not present in the Malayalam original but created by Ravikumar. Radha Ravi was not initially interested in playing Ambalathar since he had grown weary of playing negative roles, but Rajinikanth's insisted. Rajinikanth wanted Ravikumar to make a cameo appearance as a Tamil-speaking Malayali. Ravikumar agreed after initial reluctance and dyed his hair white to portray the character. Filming Principal photography began on 1 June 1995. The first shooting schedule took place in Mysore. While filming the introductory song "Oruvan Oruvan", the team brought two horses via lorry to each place where the film was to be shot. Ravikumar