In October 2006, Karthi signed his second project under Selvaraghavan's direction, "Idhu Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam", which was supposed to be a romance film, featuring Sandhya as the female lead. Karthi's character was a " ... sophisticated upmarket stylish guy ... ". Selvaraghavan abandoned that project and in July 2007, he announced the production of an action adventure film titled "Aayirathil Oruvan", with Karthi in the lead role. Filming began later that year and was expected to be completed by February 2008. The producers planned to release it in mid-2008, but production was delayed and filming continued until early 2009. He had agreed to play the lead character in Linguswamy's next film "Paiyaa", in September 2007. Because of the slow progress of "Aayirathil Oruvan", "Paiyaa" was postponed several times. He later said that he became anxious because he received several film offers, but could not work on them because he needed to maintain the continuity of his looks. During the filming of "Aayirathil Oruvan", producer R.Ravindran complained that Karthi was trying to change his look and move on to "Paiyaa" before finishing his commitments.