Kannathil Muthamittal - Production

Production

Like other Mani Ratnam projects, the film began production with very little official publicity in early 2001 with the media covering the project as either Manjal Kudai (Yellow Umbrella) or Kudaigal (Umbrellas). The film was reported of a trilogy of films based on love and peace in the backdrop of war - after Roja (1992) and Bombay (1995) - with Mani Ratnam choosing to base the film with the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Madhavan was signed up to play a leading role in the film, with the venture becoming his third straight Mani Ratnam project after Alaipayuthey and the Mani Ratnam production, Dumm Dumm Dumm. For the role of Indira, Mani Ratnam considered casting either Rani Mukerji, Soundarya or relative newcomer Bhumika Chawla, before finalising Simran to portray the character. Madhavan and Simran thus shot for two films simultaneously together, as they had also been cast in K. Balachandar's Paarthale Paravasam as a married couple. Nandita Das was also roped in for the film, making her debut in Tamil films, and in a later interview mentioned that the team shot for nearly thirteen hours a day. P. S. Keerthana, the second daughter of actors Parthiban and Seetha, was cast the child artiste in the film, while Prakash Raj and J. D. Chakravarthy were also roped in.

The title of the film was finally announced as Kannathil Muthammittal (A peck on the cheek) in July 2001, after a famous phrase from a poem written by Subramanya Bharathi. Parts of the film shown to be Colombo in the film were shot in Pondicherry. Further schedules were carried out in the forests of Kerala to depict the base of the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka.

As most of the cast were non-native Tamil speakers, dubbing artistes were used with actresses Suganya and Deepa Venkat lending their voices for Nandita Das and Simran respectively. Furthermore Mounika lent her voice for Easwari Rao's character, while Thalaivasal Vijay spoke lines for Chakravarthy.