Development Velayudham was
M. Raja's first directorial in Tamil for another actor, and without the involvement of his father
Editor Mohan and brother
Ravi Mohan. After the release of
Santosh Subramaniam (2008),
Vijay who had congratulated M. Raja for the film's success had teased him in a friendly banter saying whether he would often give successful ventures for his brother Ravi and not for him. Raja was impressed on the actor's offer to work with Vijay and had thought of a possible script for the actor. Raja had analysed Vijay's popularity even before working on the script, as he accompanied a large fanbase ranging from youngsters, families, women and children, owing to him acting in a variety of genres that had its target audience. He also admitted his previous ventures with Ravi were also catered to the family audience. So he admitted not having to change his style to suit him, but instead adding a mass touch to his style. Like Raja's previous Tamil films which were remakes of Telugu films, it was speculated that
Velayudham would also be a remake of
Azad (2000). However, Raja denied the same even though he had bought the rights of that film. Raja stated that the original film's director,
Thirupathisamy, had told about the story to him before he narrated to
Nagarjuna. Since then, Raja had this idea in mind and had developed into a complete script that was fresh and different from the original film. Since Vijay had garnered a huge fan following with a larger-than-life personality, Raja felt the story had suited his image. It took him 10 months to write the script, which he co-wrote with
R. T. Neason, the latter of whom would direct Vijay in
Jilla (2014). When he narrated the story to Vijay, the latter was "really excited" about the part agreeing to do the film.
Casting Raja admitted that he had given his own style of characterization for Vijay, like his previous films while also adding an image that appealed to the masses. He described the character as a normal man "who does super things for society and people" and not a "super hero with supernatural powers".
Genelia D'Souza who worked with Raja in
Santosh Subramaniam was chosen to play the role of a journalist and
Hansika Motwani was cast as the village girl, which Raja noted "should remind viewers of
Khushboo in her heyday". Their voices were dubbed by
Savitha Radhakrishnan, who had often provided voice-overs for both actresses in their individual films. Around 30 comedy actors were cast in the film which includes
Soori,
Santhanam and
M. S. Bhaskar, and 15 antagonists with
Abhimanyu Singh as the main one.
Filming The film was launched on 15 July 2010 at the
Annamalai University in
Chidambaram in the presence of thousands of fans. Raja initially planned to shoot 60 percent of the film in villages and remaining portions should be shot in
Chennai and
Hyderabad. The song "Sonna Puriyadhu" was filmed with hundreds of local folk dancers along with artists from
Mumbai and Russia. The song almost cost around . By April, 80 percent of the film's shooting was completed. The film featured six action sequences, under the supervision of
Anal Arasu. Hollywood stunt co-ordinator Tom Delmar had worked on a risky stunt sequence on a moving train with Vijay and other antagonists, which was shot in
Rayagada,
Odisha. The sequence which takes place in a cricket stadium in
Kochi was completed by July 2011. The song "Molachu Moonu" was filmed in Kashmir with Vijay, Motwani and D'Souza. Filming was completed by September 2011, after the song was shot. The entire film was completed within 150 working days. ==Themes and influences==