Peranmai is inspired from the 1972 Russian war-drama, A zori zdes tikhie (The Dawns Here Are Quiet), directed by Stanislav Rostotsky.
The Dawns Here are Quiet, which deals with antiwar themes and focuses on a garrison of Russian female soldiers in World War II, was itself adapted from Boris Vasilyev's novel of the same name.The Dawns are Quiet was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category that year.The Dawns are Quiet was again remade in 2015 in English by director Renat Davletyarov.The original book was also filmed as a Chinese TV series in 2005 directed by Mao Weining.Austrian bodybuilder Roland Kickinger, who had acted in Hollywood films like See Arnold Run, Disaster Movie, and Terminator Salvation, was signed up to play the antagonist,Standing at 193 cms and weighing 135 Kgs, Roland played Anderson, the leader of the foreign terrorist group who plan to destroy a innovative rocket launch from the forest.Jayam Ravi plays forest ranger Dhruvan, a member of the scheduled tribe, who fights discrimination, to become what he is.To play Dhruvan, Jayam Ravi lost 16 Kgs and tanned his skin naturally over a period of 3 months.Jayam Ravi also took a crash-course in weapon warfare for playing Dhruvan.According to director SP Jananathan, Jayam Ravi plays a one-man army in Peranmai similar to that of Sylvester Stallone in Rambo.Peranmai is also the breakthrough film for the 5 girls - Dhansika, Vasundhara Kashyap, Saranya, Varsha Ashwathi, and Liyashree - who play NCC Cadets.Though Dhansika had appeared in a couple of uncredited roles before this film, Peranmai made the Kabali actor to get eyeballs for the first time.Vasundhara Kashyap (left in the picture), who had earlier appeared in films as Adhisaya, was credited with her original name for the first time in Peranmai.Saranya, who got popular as Sandhya's bespectacled friend in Kaadhal, played one of the NCC cadets.Varsha Aswathi (right in the picture), who won the 'Miss Beautiful' title in the 2006 Miss Chennai contest, made her debut as yet another cadet in Peranmai.Model Liyasree also played one of the cadets in the film.In addition to Roland Kickinger, another foreign actor, Svilen Kamburov, played one of the terrorists in Peranmai.The film's music was by Vidyasagar.Peranmai, made at a budget of 5 crores, became a superhit film, amassing 25 crores at the box-office.Peranmai was also dubbed into Hindi as Kasam Hindustan Ki (2011) and into Telugu as Ranadheera.Here are a few stills, posters, and paper-ads from the film.