Back in 2010, Karthi had only made two films as the lead- his debut Paruthiveeran, and Selvaraghavan's Aayirathil Oruvan. But his brother Suriya had an established career by then. Karthi reminisced about one of Suriya's films that were close to his heart.

During the audio launch of Suriya's Singam, Karthi said, "The fans of Anna (Suriya), including me, deem Aaru as an important film. Even while walking through the streets, auto drivers would always say to me to do film like Aaru. But I became afraid of the film after a while. I couldn't dream of doing films like Vaaranam Aayiram or Ghajini. But even in a commercial film like Aaru, Anna was like a fire."

Aaru was Suriya's first collaboration with director Hari. The film was about an enforcer who comes to terms with some conspiracies plaguing him. Suriya and Hari later collaborated on the three Singam films, starting in 2010.

Singam was remade in multiple languages including in Hindi, by Rohit Shetty. Rohit went on to create a cop universe which included films like Simmba, and Suryavanshi.