In 1995, Superstar Rajnikanth had acted in the movie Muthu which was directed by KS Ravikumar and produced by K Balachander's Kavithalayaa productions and also starred Meena, Sarath Babu, Radha Ravi and Raghuvaran.

The movie, which was inspired by the Malayalam blockbuster Thenmavin Kombath had Sarath Babu playing Rajnikanth's boss and it was actor Jayaram who was initially supposed to play the role but he had opted out of the superhit.

In an interview, Jayaram has revealed the reason why he had to quit Muthu. Jayaram revealed that there was a scene where he had to slap Rajni and he felt his fans will be angered if Jayaram slaps Rajni and hence opted out of the movie. However he slapped Kamal in Tenali, as they had already acted together in Chanakyan and he was comfortable doing it, revealed Jayaram.