After the success of "Run", N. Linguswamy announced his plans of re-collaborating with Madhavan in "Sathyam", a film about student politics to be produced by A. M. Rathnam, but Madhavan opted out due to his work in Mani Ratnam's "Aayutha Ezhuthu". The team also approached Srikanth, but he was later not signed. Linguswamy then approached Ajith Kumar in September 2003 to star in the film and the actor accepted with S. S. Chakravarthy taking over as producer for the film newly re-titled "Ji". Initial reports suggested that either Kutty Radhika, Pooja or Nisha Kothari would be signed on as heroine, though the role was later given to Trisha.