Development In September 2007, while working on
Bheemaa, a film starring
Vikram, Lingusamy announced that
Karthi would star in his next venture to be launched in January 2008. He said that he had written a story "suitable for Karthi", further adding that it would be "an action oriented film". The following month, sources suggested that he was planning a bilingual project, filming simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu with Karthi and
Ram Charan, respectively. However, in early November, reports claimed that
Vishal would portray the protagonist after Lingusamy had considered
Jayam Ravi for the lead character. The reports proved to be false and Karthi was confirmed as the lead actor of the film. The film failed to begin production in January 2008, with sources reporting in March that Lingusamy was still working on the script. The film was yet to be titled. It was to feature the main crew members of
Bheemaa, including music director
Harris Jayaraj, cinematographer
R. D. Rajasekhar and editor
Anthony. Lingusamy later announced the film with an entirely new crew;
Yuvan Shankar Raja replaced Jayaraj as the film's music composer, and
R. Madhi was selected as the cinematographer, after Rajasekhar had opted out of the project as he was busy working on
Jaggubhai. Lingusamy chose Priya Manikandan, wife of cinematographer
V. Manikandan, as the chief costume designer, for whom
Paiyaa would be her first film project. Lingusamy further revealed that the film would be produced by his home production studio
Thirrupathi Brothers and denied that it was a remake of a Telugu film. Lingusamy disclosed later that he had written two scripts, out of which Karthi eventually chose
Paiyaa, because he wanted to do an "urban love story" after two successive roles as a ruffian. Initially titled as
Kuthirai, it was later renamed as
Paiyaa, which was considered a tentative,
working title only. Karthi said he was " ... dying to start shooting for Paiyaa " and to " ... wear good clothes ... and he accepted the film because he " ... desperately wanted to play a cool dude on screen. The filming was supposed to begin in August 2008. However, due to the slow progress of Karthi's ongoing project,
Aayirathil Oruvan,
Paiyaa was postponed several times, since Karthi needed to maintain the continuity of his looks for his role in
Aayirathil Oruvan. Its producer Ravindran complained at the Tamil Film Producers Council that Karthi was trying to change his look and move on to
Paiyaa before finishing his commitments, which forced Lingusamy to readjust the schedules. The shooting finally began in December 2008. The film's music was released in November 2009 along with the trailer. Later, as
Yuganikki Okkadu, the Telugu dubbed version of Karthi's
Aayirathil Oruvan, emerged as successful in
Andhra Pradesh, the team instead decided to
dub and release the film as
Awara in Telugu to cash in on Karthi's new-found popularity in the state. In March 2010, the film's distribution rights were acquired by
Dayanidhi Azhagiri's
Cloud Nine Movies.
Casting In July 2008, actress
Nayanthara was signed for the female lead role in
Paiyaa for a record salary of ₹1 crore. Speaking about the issue, the director admitted that she was one of his favourite actress and he liked her performance in
Yaaradi Nee Mohini. He also quoted: "The way her career graph shot up is intriguing. Unlike others her career progressed in reverse gear. She paired up with the superstar during the early years of her career and started accepting roles with heroes of next generation." She also expressed her interest to work in the project. However, plans were made to trim the film's budget due to the
recession, Later, she was accused of cheating the director by refusing to return an advance of ₹15 lakh she had taken before commencement, after walking out of the film. The director filed a complaint with the Tamil Film Producers Council, which decided to ban the actress. Subsequently,
Trisha Krishnan was reported to have won the role, before
Tamannaah Bhatia was finalised as the female lead, who was signed for ₹80 lakh. Later in December 2008,
Milind Soman, who had last appeared in
Pachaikili Muthucharam, was signed up for the main antagonist's role, a Mumbai-based don, with other minor antagonists numbering up to 18.
Filming After Karthi had completed his film
Aayirathil Oruvan, the
principal photography for
Paiyaa began on 24 December 2008 at a highway near
Bangalore. Shooting carried on in and around Bangalore in the following weeks. The film's main portions were extensively shot across some major highways, where the story plays, whilst the climax was filmed in
Mumbai, where the journey would also end. Later that month, a song ("Suthudhe Suthudhe Boomi"), choreographed by Sabeena Khan, was shot at
Prasad Studios in
Chennai, where a set had been erected by art director Rajeevan. The song was said to have featured
computer graphics and
visual effects with which forests and mountain ranges were created. In June 2009, after nearly six months of shooting, more than sixty-five percent of the project was completed, with a song and the climax sequences being the remaining parts to be filmed. but the shooting got halted in July due to heavy rains. In October 2009, the final action scenes of the climax involving Karthi and Milind Soman were filmed in Mumbai and its suburbs in a ten-day schedule, following which a rain song ("Adada Mazhaida"), featuring Karthi and Tamannaah, was shot at the
Athirappilly waterfalls in
Kerala. ==Music==