Development In April 2010, following the success of
Angaadi Theru,
Vasanthabalan started working on his new project based on Su. Venkatesan's novel
Kaaval Kottam, a novel depicting the history of
Madurai during 1310–1910, which was released in 2009.
Aravaans story would be based on one chapter from the novel, running to about 10 pages, with Vasanthabalan claiming that he expanded it and took one year for penning the
scriptment, further telling that he had tried to "mix action and emotion". The director said that he included more characters and incidents into the script, disclosing that the film's lead character Varipuli was not there in the short story and that he created him and gave a name. Malayali actress
Archana Kavi was hired for her first Tamil film to play the role of Chimitti, a bold and aggressive woman who "loves to take control of everything around her", with Archana reporting that the character was "unlike her real self" and that she had difficulties to "get the body language and the
Madurai Tamil right". In January 2011, Hindi film actor
Kabir Bedi who had also appeared in several international productions, notably in the 1983
James Bond film
Octopussy, was signed for a significant role, making his Tamil film debut, while the following month, actor
Bharath, who had collaborated with Vasanthabalan in
Veyil as well, accepted to perform a
cameo role. In August 2011 reports confirmed that Malayali model-actress
Shweta Menon would appear in a
cameo role as a dasi.
Filming Since the film was set in the past, the crew needed to find locations that had no trace of "modern life" yet and searched for remote unsettled areas devoid of
cell phone towers,
overhead power lines and tarred roads. Cinematographer Siddharth commented that it took him four months to find a suitable location. The film was shot primarily at four locations, a small village Arithapatti in Madurai, where the major portions of the film were shot,
Courtallam,
Hogenakkal in
Tamil Nadu, and forest areas in
Kerala and
Andhra Pradesh. Arithapatti was a place that boasted off many caves, streams and huge valleys. The place further had hundreds of huts made of bamboo straws, palm leaves and stones and a Karuppan Temple. Siddharth stated these locations were chosen as the film had two different tones; the first of half of the film took place in a hot, dry, barren land and the entire portion was shot in Arithapatti, while the flashback scenes would happen in a humid area with greenery, water and huge trees, which was canned in Courtallam and the Kerala forests. The first shots were filmed in the
Achankovil forests in Kerala. In Ovvamalai, near
Melur, a settlement of 100 houses was created, while another set was erected at Kongaimalai, near
Tenkasi. Art director Vijay Murugan needed fifty days to erect the sets. The scene where buffaloes are sacrificed was shot in dense forests in Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. Producer Siva said that he ordered 5,000 panchas and 3,000 cheeras specially made from Erode and Karur to give it a historical feel. Aadhi injured himself while performing a risky stunt sequence, in which the protagonist had to jump over a five feet palm tree. ==Soundtrack==