Rajinikanth was cast as the title character, a city-based engineer who returns to his ancestral village. Padayappa's cousin Neelambari is based on Nandini, a vengeful woman in "Ponniyin Selvan". Meena and Nagma were earlier considered for the role, but Ramya Krishnan was ultimately cast. She said she accepted the role because "it was opposite a superstar and that too the character was a negative one, no one was ready to do it, but I did it. I didn't have any second thoughts." According to Aishwarya Rai, she was also considered for the role, but Ravikumar has denied this.