After their successful teaming up in 'Gilli', the Vijay-Trisha pair come together again in 'Thirupachi'. The film is directed by debutant Perarasu, who had apprenticed under directors like Ramanarayanan, Dharani, and Maharajan, and penned the dialogue for a few films. Apart from penning the story-screenplay-dialogue and directing the film, Perarasu has also written the lyrics for all the songs.

The film is produced by R B Choudhry for Supergood Films. It's Vijay's 40th film, and his 5th with Choudhry. Says Choudhry, "My earlier four films with Vijay have all been hits, and this is one of my most lavish productions to date."

Vijay plays Sivagiri, who hails from a family of traditional sickle-makers. Though the place Thirupachi is associated with sickle-making, there is not an ounce of violence in my film, says director Perarasu.

'Autograph' Mallika plays Vijay's sister, and it is the brother-sister bonding that is the highlight of the film, he adds.

The story opens in a village and shifts to an urban ambience in the second half, and has action, romance and comedy woven in.

Manoj K. Jayan plays a positive character Rajaguru, the police commissioner. Benjamin, who's played small roles in innumerable films and got noticed as Cheran's village-friend in 'Autograph', gets to play Vijay's friend here, and has a separate comedy track too.

Playing the baddies are Kotta Sreenivas Rao, Pasupathy and new face Aryan. Rocky Rajesh has choreographed the stunts, with Vijay even donning special make-up for a fight scene.

Playing the parents of Vijay are Vinodraj (father of actor Vikram), and 'Sankarabaranam' Rajalakshmy who returns to Tamil films after a long gap. The supporting cast also includes Livingston, Vyapuri, Benjamin, M N Rajam, and Yugendran.

Chaya Singh has been roped in for an item number in the film.

'Thirupachi' has music by Dhina. A song was picturised in a village near Karaikudi, where a lavish set was designed by art director M Prabhakar. It was of an Ayyanar temple with a 90-foot statue, surrounded by 200 mud horses. Costing about Rs 30 lakh, it had about 1,500 junior artistes taking part. It took a week to complete the song.

The climax for the film was shot in Vasan House, Chennai. It had a huge crowd of junior artistes taking part each day of the two weeks it took to complete the scene.

Other locations for shooting were Visakhapatnam, Arakkuveli, with a song shot in South Africa.

With S Saravanan wielding the camera and V Jaishanker's editing, 'Thirupachi' is scheduled for a Pongal release.