Pratap K. Pothen as Chandramouli, an archaeologist and father of Lavanya Chandramouli Azhagam Perumal as army officer Ravisekharan Crane Manohar as Muthu's uncle V.Nambirajan as Chola's Rajaguru Abhinaya as daughter of Chola king Mathan as Uncredited Role Side Soldier Production Development After the reception to his 2007 gangster film, Pudhupettai, Selvaraghavan took a sabbatical to plan future projects and set up a production company, White Elephants, whose first project Idhu Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam started in November 2006. The film was co-produced by new producer R. Ravindran, and the first schedule began with Karthi, whose first film, Paruthiveeran, was awaiting release, and Sandhya. The film was stalled in early 2007 due to cinematographer Arvind Krishna's decision to leave White Elephants and the project was eventually shelved. In July 2007, Selvaraghavan announced a new film with a new team of Karthi and Reemma Sen in the cast, with Ramji replacing regular Arvind Krishna as the cinematographer. It was Sen's first venture into this genre following a series of roles in commercial projects. Erum Ali, wife of actor Abbas, became the team's head costume designer, whilst Selvaraghavan's sister-in-law and Rajinikanth's daughter, Aishwarya Dhanush, was signed on as an associate director. The film was named after a popular M. G. Ramachandran film, Aayirathil Oruvan. The producer was announced to be R. Ravindran whilst Yuvan Shankar Raja was appointed as music director following five previous successful soundtracks in Selvaraghavan films. Despite early indications that the director's brother Dhanush was going to play a guest role, the role was given to R. Parthiepan. Andrea Jeremiah was also signed for a role in the film in October 2007, in her second film after Pachaikili Muthucharam, and director-actor Azhagam Perumal followed suit in November 2007. Filming and post-production After extensive development and pre-production which took four months for scripting, the film started the first schedule in the forests of Chalakudy in Kerala with Karthi, Reemma Sen and Andrea during October 2007. Shooting took place in various locations throughout India also including Kerala and Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The project developed a reputation for its gruelling shoots, a novel concept in Tamil films, at an early stage of production. Thirty-five days into the shoot, Selvaraghavan gave a statement that the film was forty percent over and the film should release by May 2008 whilst also mentioning that rains in Kerala had led to the budget going over expectations two months into