Initially, Vasanth roped in his lead hero from "Aasai", Ajith Kumar and Vijay to play the lead roles, though Ajith withdrew from the film 18 days after production began as a result of date problems. The film was briefly reported to be titled "Manasukkul Varalaama?" (Can I Come into your Heart?) and also featured Swathi in the cast. Prabhu Deva was touted as a potential replacement to Ajith, though Vasanth then opted to replace Ajith with a debutant as he was able to commit under short notice. Vasanth then approached Suriya, son of veteran actor Sivakumar, to make his acting debut in the film. Vasanth had earlier unsuccessfully tried to persuade Suriya to star in his previous film, "Aasai", in 1995 but the actor's father insisted that Suriya was finally ready to act. During the test shoot for the film, cinematographer K. V. Anand revealed that the team were worried how Suriya was going to stand opposite Vijay and that they made him wear two inch heels and made him put some shoulder pads. He added that for the first four days during the shoot in Kolkata, Suriya appeared to be uncomfortable in front of the camera and used to tell the team that he didn't want to do the film.