After the success of "Muthu" in 1995, Rajinikanth took a year out dabbling in politics and taking a sabbatical before announcing that his next film would be "Arunachalam" written by Crazy Mohan. It was announced that the film would be produced to help eight of his struggling film industry colleagues and it was incorrectly earlier reported that the film would be produced under his newly floated Rajini Arts banner. It was indicated that some of the people who the film would go on to cause benefits for included Kalakendra Govindharajan who introduced Rajinikanth in his production "Apoorva Raagangal" (1975), Kalaignyanam who featured Rajinikanth in the lead role for the first time with his production "Bairavi" (1978) and brothers Ramji and Babji who produced some of the actor's early hits, "Kaali" (1980) and "Garjanai" (1980). Furthermore, collections would also be shared between the family of Sathya Studio Padmanabhan, actress Pandari Bai, actor V. K. Ramasamy and producer Madurai Nagaraja. Initial reports had also titled the film as "Kuberan" and "Meshtri", but "Arunachalam" was eventually retained. The plot of the film was inspired by George Barr McCutcheon's 1902 novel "Brewster's Millions".