Ezhil

Ajith Kumar signed the film Poovellam Un Vasam in early 2001 after he pulled out of Praveenkanth's commercial film Star. The producers had initially approached Simran, Aishwarya Rai and then Preity Zinta to appear in the lead roles, with their refusals leading to the casting of Jyothika. Miss World 2001, Yukta Mookhey was roped in to appear in an item number. Ajith gained mass image before the filming so producer Ravichandran expressed his doubts to Ezhil about carrying on with such a family oriented film with an action hero like Ajith in hand. But Ezhil was confident about Ajith's capabilities in pulling off varying roles. The film opened to positive reviews with The Hindu critic labelling it as "reasonably interesting", with Ajith's performance being praised as "Ajith is natural and neat" with claims that "he has to work harder on his soliloquies and sad expressions". The success of the film prompted Ezhil, Ajith Kumar and Jyothika to team up for a venture the following year with Raja.

The film went on to become a blockbuster, running for hundred days across dozens of theatres in Tamil Nadu, while it also enjoyed similar success in the neighbouring state of Kerala. Vijay and Ezhil immediately decided to follow up this film with another collaboration, Pennin Manathai Thottu, with either Isha Koppikar or Roja to be roped in as the lead actress. However soon after pre-production, Vijay was replaced by Prabhu Deva and the film went on to release in 2000.

Ezhil is an Indian director who works in the Tamil film industry. He has won 2 Tamil Nadu state award. He made his debut with the 1999 romantic blockbuster Thulladha Manamum Thullum starring Vijay and Simran. His success streak continued with Pennin Manathai Thottu, Poovellam Un Vasam and Deepavali. He made a comeback in 2012 after a brief sabbatical with the Sivakarthikeyan starred film Manam Kothi Paravai which opened to moderate reviews from critics, but was a commercial hit. Suseenthiran and Karu Pazhaniappan were his assistants.