Development Made on a then-record budget of , the film was completed in a year and a half.
Jeans, unlike Shankar's other films, was the first to be shot outside of India for major portions of the film. The producers of the film were
Ashok Amritraj and
J. Murali Manohar, both of whom made their
Tamil film debuts with
Jeans. Amritraj did not work on any Tamil film afterwards. The film reunited Shankar with his award-winning technical crew from his previous film
Indian, whilst the cast was finalised by him after he had completed the story. while Shankar said, "Young people are associated with denim wear and so
Jeans is an apt title". The cast and crew of the film wore their favourite pair of blue jeans to the launch, as requested by the film's producers. The role eventually went to
Prashanth, who sacrificed seven films in the process, and chose to work exclusively on the project during the period. Initially, the team approached actress
Sridevi for the roles of Madhumitha and Vaishnavi but eventually walked off due to busy shooting schedules. The supporting cast included
Senthil and
Raju Sundaram, with the latter making his debut as an actor. Prominent supporting actresses
Lakshmi and
Radhika were signed up for the film, whilst
Geetha agreed to appear in a guest appearance. Another supporting role was taken by
S. Ve. Sekhar after playback singer
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam opted out of the role. The other substitution in the project involved the cinematographer. Despite reports that Shankar would again sign-on
Jeeva, whom he had worked within
Kaadhalan,
Gentleman and
Indian,
Santhosh Sivan was announced as the cinematographer for the film. Though between the time of the announcement and the finishing stages of the film, cinematographer
Ashok Kumar was publicised as the official cinematographer for the film. In mid-1997, the
Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) went on strike and in the midst of this, the film's art director
Thota Tharani, a FEFSI supporter, refused to sacrifice his position in FEFSI and stopped working in
Jeans. The initial scenes of the Nachiyappan family's catering company were filmed in
Las Vegas, whilst other scenes were shot in California at the
Universal Studios, where the shooting of foreign films is usually not permitted. However, with influence from the film's producer Ashok Amritraj they were able to obtain special permission to film a few scenes inside. Besides the
King Kong set,
Jeans was also shot in the "simulated earthquake experience" sets. The song was named after
Christopher Columbus and was described as "a pastiche of
MTV music videos and
Baywatch". Shankar also filmed in
New Jersey and New York City at the
World Trade Center when co-producer Michael Salomon and his wife,
Luciana Paluzzi visited the sets of
Jeans. The team made a thirty-day trip around the world stopping to can scenes at the
Leaning Tower of Pisa, the
Empire State Building, the
Great Wall of China, the
Taj Mahal, the
Egyptian pyramids, the
Colosseum and the
Eiffel Tower. Prashanth's costumes for this song were designed by
Anu Parthasarathy. During the shooting in Paris,
Diana, Princess of Wales had
died and shooting was delayed as a result of her death. For the song "Anbe Anbe", Kasi designed the costumes of Rai based on the paintings drawn by
Raja Ravi Varma as suggested by Shankar. That song was shot on an elaborate set with hundreds of actors and according to Ashok Kumar, "Ten generators were put to use, and we did special lighting, deliberately exaggerating the reds, yellows and blues with fog and smoke effects". Three weeks prior to the release of the film, on 1 April 1998 a screening was held labelled the
Making of Jeans with prominent personalities invited; however, the short film showed the real manufacture of jeans courtesy of a company named Diana Garments. The prank was claimed by a Tamil journal who utilised an
April Fools joke. == Themes and influences ==