Studio Green signed up Pa. Ranjith to direct a film for their production house after they had bought and distributed the director's successful previous venture, Attakathi (2012).
In December 2012, Ranjith confirmed that he would shortly begin work on a project titled Sarpatta Parambarai with Karthi in the lead role. But, that project didn't take off as planned.Ranjith announced in July 2013 that he would collaborate with Karthi on a newscript, which will have Santhosh Narayanan as the composer.Ranjith later clarified that Sarpatta Parambarai and Madras were two different scripts. Sarpatta Parambarai released in 2021.Although Studio Green green-lighted both the scripts, Ranjith decided to shoot Madras first as Karthi had accidentally read the script of Madras and liked its concept and characters.Ranjith had revealed son after the film's official announcement that Madras won't be based on an individual or a hero, and will instead tell the story of a community.Ranjith, however, also accepted that that a few changes were made to the script to accommodate Karthi as the hero.Karthi said, in a pre-release interview, that he chose this script out of the two, as he liked the way his character was portrayed in a realistic manner, without making any commercial compromises.The film was originally titled Kabali, but was later changed to Kaali (after the the lead character's name). Kaali then became Madras, as the team thought it reflected the film's theme the best.Madras tells the story of two factions of a political party laying claim to a wall in North Madras, and the events that follow.Ranjith revealed that his brief stint as a signboard artist before enterting cinema, inspired him to write the story of Madras.'Madras will talk about how the poor are still plagued by poverty, powerlessness and so on. They are engaged by the parties to work for only to be forgotten afterwards. This is the crux,' said Ranjith'I'm a student of Fine Arts. I've worked as a signboard artist and have painted for several local brands on walls. I've seen people fight over a wall, at times, even leading to murders, ' Ranjith saidNo make-up was used for any of the cast members in the film.Nazriya Nazeem, Nithya Menen, and Lakshmi Menon were all considered for the female lead, before Catherine was finalized. Madras happened to be Catherine Tresa's debut Tamil film.Harikrishnan, who was later seen as the youth who shoots Rajinikanth in Kabali's climax, went out of him comfort zone to play Johnny, the well-spoken local madman, who once was a notorious criminal.Harikrishnan lost 15 kilos for the role and prepared for nine months for his role as Johnny.Kalaiyarasan, who had a short role in Ranjith's first film, Attakathi, was given the pivotal role of Anbu, Kaali's best friend, after he had cleared three stringent, screen tests.Rythivika, who won the title in the 2nd season of Bigg Boss Tamil, got a lot of eyeballs for her role as Mary, Anbu's wife.Rama, who is known for her lead role in director Bharathiraja's En Uyir Thozhan (1990), played Karthi's mother in the film.Jaya Rao, a debutant, was chosen to play Karthi's dad in the film.Apart from Karthi, all other actors were either debuting in Tamil cinema with Madras or had previously appeared in minor character roles.Ranjith later said that the casting of newcomers and unpopular actors was 'to lend an air of authenticity to the filmKarthi worked exclusively for the film in the final half of 2013, losing about 10 kg of weight and sporting a new beard and hair-do for the role of the software analyst from North Madras.Karthi also worked on acquiring the typical Royapuram accent and spent considerable time in North Chennai familiarizing himself with their way of life.He also learnt to play football and carrom for the film as they are the sports that is popular in north Chennai.Catherine Tresa took lessons to learn the 'Madras Slang' and their body language for achieving a perfect lip sync.Most of the film's shooting was done in localities in and around the northern part of the city, namely Kasimedu, a locality in the Royapuram area of north Chennai, Otteri and Perambur.Santhosh Narayanan's album consists of 5 songs and 2 theme instrumental tracks. While Gana Bala penned the lyrics for the two songs sung by him, the remaining three were penned by Kabilan and Uma DeviThe Suvar them and the Kaali Love theme were performed by The Studio Orchestra of Sydney, featuring Pradeep Kumar on the acoustic guitar.The film's FL got into a controversy, when fans pointed out that it was similar to that of Vijay's FL from Thalaivaa, but the makers clarified that only the background texture may have been identical.Madras was initially scheduled for a release in July 2014, thereby clashing with Dhanush's film VIP. However, the release was postponed to Sept 2014, due to delay in censor certification.Madras collected 4.5 cr (US$650,000) in US, 1.74 cr (US$250,000) in the UK and 708 lakh (US$1.0 million) in Malaysia in the first 3 days, making it one of the most profitable Indian movies overseas.At the 62nd Filmfare Awards South, Madras won Critics Award for Best Actor (Karthi), Best Female Debut (Tresa), Best Supporting Actress (Riythvika) and Best Male vocalist (Pradeep Kumar for Aagayam).Madras received 13 nominations at the 4th South Indian International Movie Awards ceremony and won six awards, including those for Best director, Best debut actress and Best male vocalist.Madras also received a nomination for Best Playback Singer (Female) for Shakthisree Gopalan (Naan Nee) at the Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards.