Gautham Menon launched a Tamil romantic film O Lala in 2000 with the project eventually changing producers and title into Minnale.
Madhavan, who was at the beginning of his career, was signed on to portray the lead role.
About the making of the film, Menon revealed that he found it difficult as the team was completely new with only the editor of the film, Suresh Urs, being a prominent technician in the industry.
GVM had come under further pressure when Madhavan had insisted that he narrate the story to his mentor, ManiRatnam, to identify if the film was a positive career move after his Alaipayuthey.
Despite initial reservations, Gautham did so and Mani was unimpressed; however GVM has cited that he thought that Madhavan 'felt sorry' and later agreed to continue with the project.
Miss World 1999, Yukta Mookhey was considered to play the film's heroine during July 2000, but a delay meant that she was replaced with Reemma Sen, who appeared in her first Tamil film.
Minnale also saw Madhavan collaborating with Abbas for second time after Kannada film Shanti Shanti Shanti.
The cinematography of the film was handled by RD Rajasekhar and Ravi Varman.
The film's original soundtrack composed by first time music composer Harris Jayaraj, became a chartbuster prior to the movie's release.
The audio cassette of the film was released in Chennai at a function in January 2001, where the songs were also screened.
Harris Jayaraj won his first Filmfare Best Music Director for his album
The film was advertised as a Valentine's Day release in 2001 but was released a week before, and upon release it went on to become a large success commercially.
Madhavan became extremely popular among the youth after the release of Alaipayuthey, but had a setback as his second film, Ennavaley, flopped.
Minnale made him once again popular among the youth.
The movie was dubbed into Telugu under the name Cheli and also performed well at the box office
The success of the film led to producer Vashu Bhagnani signing Menon on to direct the Hindi language remake of the film, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, which featured Madhavan reprising his role.
The Hindi version, costarring Diya Mirza and Saif Ali Khan, gained mixed reviews and subsequently went on to become an above average grosser at the box office.
The actors and makers of GVM's Hindi version released a video thanking the film's admirers for their adulation on the fifteenth anniversary of the film's release.
All songs except Ivan Yaaro and Iru Vizhi Unadhu (Ore Nyabagam) were reused in the film's Hindi version Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein by Harris himself.
'Azhagiya Theeye' and 'Venmathi Venmathiye' were written by Vaali. 'Maddy Maddy' was CS Amudhan's song-writing debut.
The song 'Vaseegara' is set in Natabhairavi raga, and marked the debut of poet Thamarai as a film song lyricist. She wrote all other songs in the film.
'Venmathi Venmathiye Nillu' was written by Bollywood singer Roop Kumar Rathod,
All tracks are in dubbled Telugu version were written by Bhuvana Chandra.
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