Pre-production Following the commercial success of
Rajinikanth-starrer
Kabali (2016), Rajinikanth was reportedly signed for his next project backed by
Dhanush's
Wunderbar Films, collaborating with the actor for the first time.
Vetrimaaran narrated a script to Dhanush, who set up a meeting for Vetrimaaran to discuss the script with Rajinikanth. The actor liked the script, but later turned down the offer as he felt the script was too political. Later, Rajinikanth approached
Pa. Ranjith to work on a script for the former. After the actor and the producer were impressed with Ranjith's script, the latter was hired to helm the project.
Development Dhanush announced that he had signed Rajinikanth and Ranjith to work on a new film for his production house, Wunderbar Films during late August 2016. Refuting reports that the film would be a sequel to
Kabali, Dhanush announced that production would begin during mid-2017 following the completion of Rajinikanth's work for
Shankar's science fiction film
2.0 (2018). In early May 2017, the producers received an open letter from Sundar Shekar Mishra, the foster son of gangster
Haji Mastan, threatening that the makers should not depict his father in negative light and if they did, they would face consequences. In reply, Ranjith denied the film was a biopic of Haji Mastan and clarified that the film was based on fictional events, while revealing that Rajinikanth would play a man from
Tirunelveli who escapes to Mumbai as a child and goes on to become a powerful don living in
Dharavi slums. The title of the film,
Kaala was announced in late May 2017, with promotional posters carrying the film's first look released.
Casting Following the announcement of the film, Wunderbar Films sought to cast
Vidya Balan in a leading role, but the actress turned down the offer. Actress
Huma Qureshi was later added to the cast in early May 2017 to feature in a role opposite Rajinikanth. Marathi actress
Anjali Patil also announced that she would be playing an important role in the film through a post on her official
Twitter account. Several members of the technical crew of
Kabali were retained for
Kaala, with
A. Sreekar Prasad replacing
Praveen K. L. as the film's editor during its pre-production stage. Bollywood actor
Nana Patekar has been signed to play a politician who is the antagonist. For the role of Kaala's wife,
Kasthuri was considered before
Easwari Rao was confirmed. It was rumoured that
Mammootty was signed in to play the role of
Ambedkar in the film, but was proved to be untrue. Dopeadelicz, a rap team from Dharavi, joined the film.
Filming Shooting of this film started on 28 May 2017 at Mumbai and the lead actor
Rajinikanth participated in this first schedule. It was known that the film was shot at real locations in Mumbai, including Dharavi, CTS and
Grant Road. Due to heavy rains in Mumbai, Karthikraja, a student from Dharavi residing in Ganesh Mandir helped a lot in exploring Dharavi in all the fields and also made available all permissions that was a great help to the Production and Direction team from a student. The team had taken a break and erected a set at Chennai with Mumbai as its backdrop.
Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of
Mahindra Group, was interested in the jeep which was used in the first look poster of this movie. He tweeted that he would love to acquire that jeep for his company's auto museum. The
Mumbai schedule of the film, was completed on 29 June 2017. It was also known that the second schedule of the film has been affected due to a strike organised by
Film Employees Federation of South India, which has been completed.
Dubbing On 27 December 2017,
Pa. Ranjith initiated the dubbing process with a formal pooja at Knack Studios in Chennai. Initially scheduled for December 2017, Rajinikanth's dubbing was postponed due to a six-day-long fan meet held from 26 to 31 December. Eventually, Rajinikanth commenced dubbing on 19 January 2018. Patekar delivered his dialogues in Hindi, subsequently dubbed into Tamil. He explained, "Although dubbing is possible, the language isn't native, thus the expressions may not fully convey." Patekar concluded his dubbing on 6 March 2018 in Mumbai. == Music ==