Ranjith Sankar has announced that Aju Varghese will be playing the lead in Kamala, his next after Pretham-2. The film's title poster was revealed by the director. The poster tagline says, 'One beautiful puzzle. 36 hours.' Ranjith's production house Dreams N Beyond is backing the project.

Ranjith said that Kamala is a return to the thriller territory he explored earlier in Passenger and Arjunan Sakshi. He described Aju's character as a simple, funny and very 'complicated' hero." On casting the actor, he said, "I wrote this script and thought of all existing heroes in it. He was so basic yet diverse that none was fitting in. It was sad to put this aside and move on to other stories. Then one fine morning I thought of him [Aju]. And realised it was a script written for him."

Aju's first collaboration with Ranjith materialised through the Jayasurya-starrer Punyalan Agarbattis. Aju has since then worked with Ranjith in Su.. Su.. Sudhi Vathmeekam, Pretham, Ramante Edanthottam, and Punyalan Private Limited. He also made a cameo appearance in Pretham-2.

Meanwhile, Aju has co-produced the Nivin Pauly-Nayanthara film Love Action Drama, which is scheduled for an Onam release.