Initially, the movie was planned to be made without songs, and Mani Ratnam had roped in composer A.R. Rahman only for the background score. However, in due course, Rahman came up with a few tunes and harmonies which impressed Mani Ratnam so much that they ended up being placed as 6 songs in the film.
Actor Karthi worked in this movie as an Assistant Director.
For the art direction in the film, Sabu Cyril studied each character in depth, giving them a distinct colour, mood and background to suit their temperament.
Mani Ratnam originally intended only to make the Hindi version of the film, Yuva. But an accident to Vivek Oberoi on set resulted in shooting being postponed by a few months. This break in schedule allowed Ratnam the time to start shooting the Tamil version.
The idea of hyperlink narrative structure of the film was borrowed from Alejandro Inarritu's Mexican film Amores Perros (2000).