Ratnam initially planned to complete the shooting in 60 days and 70 rolls of film. The initial budget was 6 million (US$500,000 in 1987), but time and cost overruns increased the budget to beyond 10 million (US$830,000 in 1987). According to Srinivasan, principal photography commenced in November 1986 and the first schedule lasted for 10 days, but the scenes shot during this period were scrapped because Haasan disliked them, prompting script rewrites and causing shooting to be delayed; the rewritten script had more violence, and scenes taken from "The Godfather" and "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984). According to Ratnam, a three-day test shoot involving Haasan, unknown to Srinivasan, was done in December 1986 as the script was not yet complete. While the shots taken did not make the final cut, they helped to get the technical aspects of the film on the right track.