Kamal Haasan first discussed the first draft of Anbe Sivam's script with KS Ravikumar during the making of Avvai Shanmughi.
In that version of Anbe Sivam, Kamal was a Srilankan Tamil communist, who had failed in love, and happens to share a long travel with a right-wing guy, who has been engaged to marry Kamal's ex.
KS Ravikumar refused to take up this script, as he thought there was no heroic elements in it.
Kamal then went on to collaborate on an entirely newscript with KSR, which was about a phobia patient and his love-hate dynamics with his doctor.
Remembering Kamal's Anbe Sivam, he took the Srilankan Tamil concept and incorporated it into his Thenali protagonist to spice things up.
During the late 90s, Kamal had spoken with Mohanlal and had asked him to play the capitalist ad filmmaker in his Hey Ram, if and when it materialized.
After rewriting the script in early 2002, which first involved a older protagonist, who had survived a near-fatal accident, Kamal approached Malayalam filmmaker Priyadarshan to direct it.
The two men were keen to work together since the late 1990s, and upon reading the script, Priyadarshan believed that it had the potential to be an 'emotional love story'
However, In June 2002, Priyadarshan opted out of the project after months of pre-production, owing to creative differences.
Priyadarshan was subsequently replaced by Sundar C, who agreed to produce the film as well.
Anbe Sivam was also co-produced and distributed by Swaminathan, K. Muralitharan and G. Venugopal under the production banner of Lakshmi Movie Makers
The film's title Anbe Sivam was derived from the Shaivite saint Tirumular's poem Tirumantiram.
Madhavan was selected to play the film's second lead in January 2002, after Mohanlal opted out of the project after the rewrite.
According to Kiran Rathod, she received a phone call from Haasan's office informing her that she was offered the role of Balasaraswathi, which she accepted.
Kiran was apparently suggested to Kamal Haasan by Sundar C, who believed she could pull off much serious roles.
Kamal's original choice for Bala Saraswathi's character was Nandita Das. But, Nandita couldn't accept the offer because of date conflicts.
Kiran's voice in the film was dubbed by famous singer Anuradha Sriram.
Uma Riyaz Khan played the role of Kamal's friend and colleague, Mehrunissa, for which actor Shobana was Kamal's first choice. Shobana opted out because of scheduling issues.
Kamal came over to me and said, 'Madhavan, I have seen your works and I am impressed. 'I have something for you. We should catch up' and that was how Anbe Sivam happened — Madhavan on his casting.
Kamal requested the film's co-writer cartoonist Madhan to play a cameo in the film as himself.
According to Kamal, Naasar was the first and only choice for the role of the theist businessman, Kandasamy Padaiyatchi.
Santhana Bharathi, who worked as an associate in the film, in addition to performing the role of Nasser's assistant, considers this role and that in Michael Madana Kama Rajan as his best characters.
Arthur A Wilson, M Prabhaharan and P. Sai Suresh handled Anbe Sivam's cinematography, art direction and editing, respectively.
The film's much talked about umbrella fight sequences was co-ordinated by stunt master, Vikram Dharma.
Muthulakshmi Varadhan, Santhana Bharathi's sister-in-law, worked as an assistant editor in the film
The make-up for Kamal Haasan's scars was designed by Oscar-winning makeup technician Michael Westmore (who had collaborated with Kamal in Indian and Avvai Shanmughi) and Anil Premkarikar.
In May 2002, Haasan locked the makeup and look for his character Nallasivam in Los Angeles, after filming the song sequences for Panchathantiram (2002).
Principal photography for Anbe Sivam commenced in July 2002
The first scene featuring the lead actors, which's said to happen at the Calcutta railway station, was shot at the Pollachi Junction railway station.
Kamal and Madhavan interacted closely during the initial stages of the shoot to ensure that the on-screen chemistry between the pair was apparent.
Anbe Sivam was shot on a restricted budget of 12 crores, with the train and bus disaster sequences involving the use of extensive CGI.
Madhavan once stated in an interview the whole of the film was mostly shot in relatively empty locations.
The flood scenes set in Odisha were re-created with outdoor sets consisting of city roads, submerged under water erected in the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border.
The pre-climax scenes were filmed in what was then known as the Campa Cola compound in Guindy, Chennai.
The film's climax scene, involving Kamal and Santhana Bharathi, was filmed in a single take.
Anbe Sivam, at the time of the release, wasn’t acknowledged in any of the major awards. It didn’t win any National Award despite the exceptional performances, dialogues and lyrics.
Barring a special jury award at Filmfare and a Tamil Nadu State award for Madhavan, who actually won it for also his work in Run and Kannathil Muthamittal, Anbe Sivam was rejected everywhere else.
Today, Anbe Sivam ranks 4th in the IMDB’s list of top rated Indian movies. Much of it's iconic status has to do with how brilliantly the film mixed the comedy and poignant moments.
The initial portions where Arasu, a self-centred man, is stuck with Nalla on his journey from Bhubaneswar to Chennai was partly inspired from the American comedy, Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Nalla’s character was partly based on Safdar Hashmi, the communist playwright, who used street theatre to voice his protests. Hashmi died in 1989 after Congress members attacked him during a play.
With Anbe Sivam, Kamal Haasan used the cinema medium impart his own ideologies in religion, communism and globalization, and at the same time, without being over-preachy.
The portrait painted by Nallasivam on the walls of Padayatchi's house is inspired by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera's fresco, Man at the Crossroads.
The painting shows Nallasivam posing as Padayatchi's deity Shiva, the number 910 indicating the salary Padayatchi pays to his factory's workers, and the hammer and sickle communism symbol.
The soundtrack album and background score for Anbe Sivam were composed by Vidyasagar. The song 'Mouname Paarvayai' was not included in the film.
The Poovaasam song is based on the Shuddh Sarang raga. The male portions for the reprise of Poovaasam were sung by Sriram Parthasarathy, while the original version was sung by Vijay Prakash.
The makers were so confident that Anbe Sivam would be a strong competitor at the National Film Awards that they had the film reviewed by the CBFC before the end of before the end of 2002.
Anbe Sivam was released in January 2003, coinciding with the Pongal festival. It opened alongside five other films, including Vikram's Dhool, Vijayakanth's Chokka Thangam, and Vaseegara.
Anbe Sivam was screened as a part of the Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India in 2003.
As a tribute to Safdar Hashmi, a special preview of the film was organised by Haasan in association with Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) on 9 January 2003 at Siri Fort Auditorium.
Anbey was dubbed into Telugu as Sathyame Sivam and released on 28 February 2003. It was dubbed into Hindi as Shivam two years later in 2005.
The dubbing rights for the Hindi version were sold at a low price, much to the displeasure of the lead actors as they were not able to dub for themselves because of scheduling conflicts.
The film underperformed at the BO and incurred heavy losses for Lakshmi Movie Makers, effectively stopping them from investing in other ventures for some years.
Kamal defended the film's failure by blaming video piracy, stating that 'lots of people saw it, but they didn't pay.'
