Development Following the release of
Mankatha, Venkat Prabhu was reported to be writing a script for
Suriya. In December 2011, he was signed up by Studio Green, the production company owned by Suriya's cousin K. E. Gnanavelraja, while later the month the director informed that Suriya had agreed to be part of his next film, which he was planning to shoot in
3D. Further more, the media carried reports that it would be a
bilingual, made simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu, and feature Telugu actor
Ravi Teja,
Sonam Kapoor and
Taapsee Pannu in other lead roles. In April 2012, while Venkat Prabhu was still working on the script, giving it the final touch, Suriya chose to work with director
Hari on
the sequel to his
Singam first after completing
Maattrraan, which prompted Venkat Prabhu to make another film for Studio Green instead with Suriya's brother Karthi in the lead. The film was named
Biriyani, and the director stated that the same team of his previous four films, comprising music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematographer Sakthi Saravanan, editors Praveen K. L. and N. B. Srikanth and costume designer
Vasuki Bhaskar, would work on
Biriyani. The film was launched on 16 July 2012 after a small
pooja, but filming did not start until November 2012, since Venkat Prabhu was reworking his script and the casting was not finished yet. He made it clear that the film planned with Suriya earlier was an "entirely different script", and that he would work on that project later, while revealing that
Biriyani's script was initially intended for actor
Vijay.
Casting Venkat Prabhu's brother Premgi Amaren, who had been part of all his brother's ventures, was given an "almost parallel role" as the lead character's best friend in
Biriyani. For the lead female role, the production team first approached
Samantha. but in early July 2012, Bengali actress
Richa Gangopadhyay was selected for the role, who said that she played "a typical girl in it; someone who's mischievous and not-so innocent". However, she left the project by mid-October 2012 due to "changes in the role and script". After Gangopadhyay's exit, Venkat Prabhu expressed interest in casting
Nayantara for the role. while later the month Hansika Motwani was finalized to play the leading lady of the film. Motwani told that she played a journalist named Priyanka, while classifying the film as a "black comedy thriller". Sources reported that the film had two female leads and that
Neetu Chandra had been approached to play the other lead. Venkat Prabhu was also keen on casting Bollywood actress
Diana Penty for the role, which finally went to British Indian model and actress in Punjabi films, Mandy Takhar, who said that she played a "strong, modern girl", describing her character as "sexy and sensuous", that she said was "not what I am". Takhar, who Venkat Prabhu zeroed in after seeing her photos from her Hindi film
Bumboo, added that she had allotted 20 days of shooting for the film, had to put on weight for the role and had done a
pole dance in the song "Mississippi". Further more, sources indicated that the newly married couple
Sneha and
Prasanna had been roped in for the film, although Venkat Prabhu refused to comment about this. Later, in an interview to
The Hindu, Prasanna stated that he played an important role in it. Ramki was recruited in November 2012 for an important role.
Meena was also approached by the director to play a pivotal role, but she declined the offer. Later additions to the cast included Prem, television actor and mimic Badava Gopi, playing the role of a cameraman, Uma Riyaz Khan, Madhumitha,
Bangalore socialite Sangeetha Gopal, and
Sam Anderson. Reports suggested that Canadian film critic
Review Raja had done a dance number choreographed by Shobhi during his visit in Chennai.
Filming The film's
principal photography was to start in August 2012, but was officially commenced on 5 November 2012, following a test shoot on 1 November. The first day of shoot involved scenes between Karthi and Premji, which was carried out on a set inside a house near the
Kodambakkam railway station in Chennai. The short Chennai schedule was followed by schedules in
Senji, Ambur and Pondicherry. A set of a hotel worth 1 crore was erected in Chennai, where action scenes and songs were shot for the film.
Motion capture technology was used to film a fight sequence involving Karthi, Nitin Sathya, Murugadas and
Panchu Subbu which was shot with a multiple camera setup at
Puducherry. The unit then took a break as Karthi moved on to shoot his other film
All in All Azhagu Raja simultaneously, and filming was continued on 30 March 2013 in Hyderabad. 60% of the film had been completed at that time, according to the director. Vijay Vasanth, Vaibhav Reddy, Ashwin Kakumanu, Aravind Akash and Mahat Raghavendra, who had all been part of Venkat Prabhu's
Mankatha, dropped by Hyderabad for a day to take part in the shooting. Although a 14-day schedule was planned in Hyderabad, the unit returned within three days to Chennai, after facing with opposition from the stunt union of Andhra Pradesh. The crew was allowed to shoot a fight sequence on a train, for which 40 lakh had been paid in advance, after which they returned to Chennai and resume the shoot there, where new sets had been created at the AVM studios, the
Binny Mills and the
Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR). Venkat Prabhu further said that the crew would be heading to
Spain and
Portugal in May to shoot two songs involving Karthi and Hansika. By mid-June, the entire talkie portion had been canned. The final song, choreographed by Kalyan, was shot in July 2013. Although the team had planned to shoot the song in a foreign country, it was eventually filmed in
Meenambakkam, Chennai, where two sets had been created, with Venkat Prabhu intending to shoot the song in the style of a
Broadway musical, who went on to add that "the backgrounds in the song will keep changing throughout". ==Soundtrack==