Jyothika was initially supposed to do Devyani's role (as Vijay's wife) and Suvalakshmi was supposed to do Vijayalakshmi's role (as Suriya's love interest). Photoshoots were conducted with Jyothika, Suvalakshmi and the three male leads (Vijay, Suriya and Ramesh Khanna). However for reasons unknown, they were replaced by Devyani and Suvalakshmi.
This film is a remake of the malayalam blockbuster of the same name starring Jayaram, Mukesh and Sreenivasan.
After 16 years of its release in 2019 the character in this movie "Nesamani" played by Vadivelu got #1trending in all over the world in twitter #prayfornesamani
In the opening credits, there is something peculiar about Vijay's billing. While his moniker "IlayaThalapathy" is spelled slightly differently but correctly, his name Vijay has a spelling mistake; the visually similar Tamizh character for "I" is used in place of the Tamizh character for "ja". Because of its visual similarities, it has been easily overlooked.