Development In 1996, following the release of his
Indian,
Shankar approached and pitched three storylines to
Rajinikanth to consider for his next venture. This included scripts which would later become
Sivaji (2007),
Enthiran (2010) and
I (2015). Rajinikanth was sceptical and refused all three scripts at the time. In August 2005, Rajinikanth signed up for his next film which was to be produced by
Chennai's oldest operative studio,
AVM Productions, which was run by
M. S. Guhan and
M. Saravanan. This time Shankar was confirmed to be the film's director. A tagline,
The Boss, which stands for "Bachelor of Social Service", was suffixed to the title. In addition to being AVM Productions' 168th film, However, in October 2005, Shankar and Rajinikanth announced that actress
Shriya Saran would play the female lead role. Saran's voice was dubbed by actress
Kanika, who was selected after a successful voice test, thereby collaborating for the second time with Shankar. Actor
Vivek was signed up for the role of Sivaji's maternal uncle, Arivu, in November 2005. Actress
Sunaina was to have made her acting debut through this film; her scene however was removed from the final cut.
Nayanthara, who had earlier worked with Rajinikanth in
Chandramukhi, was signed up to perform a special appearance alongside Rajinikanth in the song "Baleilakka".
Suman was confirmed in March 2006 to play the antagoinst role of Adiseshan after
Amitabh Bachchan,
Mohanlal and
Prakash Raj were considered.
Sathyaraj, who acted with Rajinikanth in
Mr. Bharath (1986), said he declined the role because, "After a film of the calibre of
Mr. Bharath with Rajnikanth, I couldn't settle for anything less". In another interview, he said he wanted to focus on playing lead roles and hence declined to play an antagonist. Mohanlal said he declined as he could not commit to the project for an entire year without missing out on other projects. For his role, Suman removed his moustache and used
dentures to make his smile visible. Shankar instructed one of the costume designers to give the character a spotless white
dhoti, shirt, shoes, a
Rolex watch and
Ray-Ban sunglasses. Before this, Suman had acted with Rajinikanth in
Thee (1981).
Subbu Panchu dubbed for Suman. Debate speakers
Solomon Pappaiah and
Pattimandram Raja were selected to play supporting roles, with the latter making his cinematic acting debut.
Vadivukkarasi and
Manivannan were selected to play Sivaji's parents.
Raghuvaran appeared in a small role as Dr. Chezhian. Shankar, who also wrote the film's story and screenplay, was paid a then record salary of 100 million (
Indian rupees) for the project.
A. R. Rahman, who was selected to compose the film's soundtrack and background score, was also paid 30 million.
Sujatha was assigned to write the dialogues for
Sivaji. Tha. Prabhu Raja Cholan, who would later direct the film
Karuppampatti (2013), worked as an assistant director in this film. Rajinikanth's daughter
Soundarya worked as a graphics designer, creating the title for this film; she had earlier worked in the same position on two of her father's films –
Baba (2002) and
Chandramukhi (2005).
K. V. Anand was hired as the cinematographer in August 2005.
Manish Malhotra was responsible for designing the film's costumes, while
Anthony and
Thota Tharani were the editor and art director respectively. Additional make-up for Rajinikanth was done by make-up artist
Banu. Director
S. P. Muthuraman worked as the film's co-producer.
Filming Principal photography commenced on 28 November 2005 with a
puja at AVM Productions. The film's launch was a secret event, with only pivotal members of the cast and crew being called for the event's attendance. The idea of shooting at Ramoji Film City was suggested to Shankar by Tharani who felt that the place offered a lot of scope for him to use his skills and experience as an art director. The set was built within 30 days. Shooting of the number, which according to K. V. Anand was filmed in
Super 35 motion picture
film format, was completed in eight days.
G. Dhananjayan mentions in his book
The Best of Tamil Cinema that 35 million was spent on the song's making. Tharani described the set designing for the song "Sahana", which was also shot at Ramoji Film City, as "extremely challenging". In addition to these two songs, Tharani contributed to similar creations for the music store where Tamizhselvi works as a saleswoman, the street surrounding the music store, the
warehouse behind the music store, the interior portions of Thamizhselvi's house and Adiseshan's office room. Filming of another action sequence in an open-air theatre, which was also designed by Tharani, took place for approximately 15–20 days. K. V. Anand used
balloon lights brought from a French company
Airstar Space Lighting for the sequence. The interior portions of Thamizhselvi's house was designed using clippings of flats constructed by the
Tamil Nadu Housing Board. which features in "Style". as well as the
City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia and the
Kursaal in San Sebastian. The fair look of Rajinikanth's character in the segment was created using
computer-generated imagery, which was performed by
V. Srinivas Mohan, the head of the Chennai-based firm Indian Artists. K. V. Anand re-shot every single movement of Rajinikanth with a British woman named Jacky, who was also one of the song's background dancers. All the shots featuring Rajinikanth in the song and those featuring Jacky were scanned in
4K resolution to enhance their clarity after which Jacky's skin colour was digitally implemented onto Rajinikanth's skin. In a scene, Rajinikanth and Shriya Saran imitated the dance from songs from three Tamil films starring
Sivaji Ganesan,
MGR and
Kamal Haasan, respectively. French hair-stylist Sandrin Veriar Seth designed two distinct hair-styles for the entire film and 13 hair-styles for the segment alone. To avoid disruptions that could occur at the shooting spot due to Rajinikanth's fan following in
Tamil Nadu,
Brinda choreographed "Balleilakka", Rajinikanth's introduction song sequence in
Wai, a
hill station near
Pune with 500 people for eight days. In November 2006, sequences featuring Rajinkanth, Saran and Vivek were shot at the
Pune Junction railway station. Filming of a key portion involving Rajinikanth and Vivek took place in the
Victoria Public Hall building in
Chennai. A fight sequence and the song "Athiradi" were filmed at
Binny Mills. The sets for the song were made bearing resemblance to the city of
Venice. For the climax scenes, which were filmed at the
Magarpatta city SEZ towers, Rajinikanth tonsured his head. The scenes where Sivaji gets the money he transferred to his friends by forgery were filmed in New York City. The completion of those scenes in February 2007 marked the end of the principal photography. The climactic fight between Sivaji and Adiseshan was filmed at
Vels University. K. V. Anand told
Shobha Warrier of
Rediff.com that the portions other than the songs and action sequences were completed in 65 days. == Themes and influences ==