In March 1999, Susi Ganeshan was able to convince producer Shanti Thiagarajan to fund his first feature film, after he left Mani Ratnam's team of assistant directors. The film was initially titled "Thithikkum Thee" and was to feature to Murali in the lead role of a firefighter. In return for producing his first film, Shanti Thiagarajan requested Ganeshan to also work on another film starring her son Prashanth in the lead role and consequently, Ganeshan finalised a script titled "Pepsi: Generation Next". In a turn of events, Prashanth replaced Murali in the director's first project, which was retitled as "Virumbugiren" in early 2000.