About 60 debutants, mostly real-time people from the region, appeared in the film. No dubbing artists were involved in the production and all artists were brought to Chennai had dubbed their original voice.
This movie received much critical acclaim and accolades winning two National film Awards, six Filmfare Awards South and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, and was also screened at several international film festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema.
This film was dubbed into Telugu as 'Malligadu'.
This film was shot entirely in and around Madurai and was in the making for about two years.