Vijay wanted to work with a debutant director and Vincent Selva's script convinced him to take the project up, prompting Lakshmi Movie Makers to make the story into a feature film.
Vijay had earlier been impressed with Vincent Selva's 20 minute short film, which the filmmaker had done during his time at the film institute.Meena was initially approached for the film, but had to turn the offer down due to her busy schedule.Priyamudan's dialogues were written by Pattukottai Prabhakar.The song 'Pooja Vaa' was shot in Bada Bagh, Kuldhara and Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.The climax was shot at Kuldhara, Rajasthan.While working for the film, Vijay had an accident and hurt his spine.As a result, Vijay traveled to London for advanced medical treatment, where he ended up meeting his eventual wife, Sangeetha Sornalingam.Priyamudan was apparently inspired by Shah Rukh's movies, Baazigar and Darr.The soundtrack by Deva became very popular, with 'Pooja Vaa' and 'Bharathikku Kannamma' going on to become chartbusters.'White lakkan' song was based on the evergreen Hindi track, 'Hum kaale hai tu kya hua' from the movie Gumnaam (1965), which was sung by Mohammed Rafi.The Maurya Maurya song was sung by Vijay, continuing his tradition of singing at least one song per film in those days.Stunt choreographer Jaguar Thangam won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Stunt Coordinator, for 1998 for his work in Priyamudan.The team had shot an alternate climax, where Vijay's character is not shot dead and the couple reunite. But Vincent Selva was very particular about retaining the original version.Director Vincent Selva later said in an interview that this was the only way Priyamudan could have ended. He also said that the film would have been a flop if it had a happy ending.Priyamudan was Kausalya's second film with Vijay after Vasanth's 1997 film, Nerukku Ner.Kausalya later played Vijay's sister-in-law in the 2003 film, Thirumalai.The film was remade in Telugu in 2000 as Preminche Manasu starring Vadde Naveen and Keerthi Reddy.Priyamudan got remade in Hindi in 2013 as Deewana Main Deewana, which starred Govindha and Priyanka Chopra.Priyamudan was Vijay's only negative role in his career.Vijay later said in an interview that he decided to keep away from negative roles taking into consideration advice from family and wellwishers.The film even got a Sinhalese remake as Rush Copy in 2019.Priyamudan is one of the two films which has Vijay playing a single character that dies in the end. The other one is Chandralekha (1995).Here are a few more memorable snapshots from the movie...