Isai

Vetriselvan (Sathyaraj) is an established and old-fashioned music director who is loved and respected for his works and is termed as the greatest musician of our times. A. K. Shiva (S. J. Suryah), who works as an assistant under Vetriselvan, gets an opportunity to compose music for a small-time film. When Shiva introduces new techniques and pioneers the use of synthesizers, his music gets the attention of all music lovers. Due to the freshness and modernity that his music possesses, he becomes the most sought after musician and overtakes Vetriselvan. Shiva becomes the number one musician and builds his own studio. Meanwhile, he falls in love with Jeni (Sulagna Panigrahi) and marries her. When it seems everything he touches turns to gold, Vetriselvan displays his true psychopathic form.

Vetriselvan decides to pull down Shiva by any means. Vetriselvan wants to disturb Shiva's peace of mind so that he could not concentrate on music. Vetriselvan enters into a deal with Shiva's car driver, manager, cook, and studio front office staff to get their help in bringing down Shiva. One day, Shiva's car driver parks the car amidst peak traffic and suddenly runs away, which confuses Shiva. He gets disturbed by the continuous honking sound. Shiva's manager also confuses him by giving some fake incidents which did not happen. Jeni gets conceived but gets aborted as Shiva's cook mixes some medicine in her food. Shiva is worried because of Jeni's miscarriage and cries aloud. He thinks that he is mentally disordered and goes to a mental hospital.

Shiva's strange behaviour gets the attention of media, and his image is tarnished amid public. Vetriselvan feels happy seeing this and in the meantime, film directors start approaching him again. Vetriselvan thinks that his lost glory is recovered now. Finally, it is revealed that Jeni is none other than Vetriselvan's daughter who was sent by him so that he can accomplish his plan. Knowing this, Shiva gets furious and comes to kill Jeni. But she reveals that she has really fallen in love with Shiva for his kindness and she is conceived again now. Vetriselvan comes there and persuades to kill Jeni knowing that she really loves Shiva. In the meantime, Vetriselvan stabs Shiva with a knife.

Suddenly, Shiva wakes up, and it is revealed that the entire story was his dream; and that his is S.J. Suryah and Madhu (Nila) (from Anbe Aaruyire) is now his wife, and she says that fans are eagerly awaiting for a movie as he has not made a movie in the last 10 years. Shiva says that he got a story from his dream and needs to decide the climax. The movie ends there.

After the release of Anbe Aaruyire (2005), S. J. Suryah was to direct a film titled Isai, which failed to progress.^[1] In November 2011, Suryah announced that he would revive Isai and would produce, direct and compose music for the film, having completed writing the new script. Describing it as a musical thriller, was supposed to be made as a bilingual in Tamil and Telugu languages but was ultimately made in Tamil only.^[2] Describing the synopsis in August 2012, Suryah stated that it is about the rivalry between two films music composers—a leading veteran composer in the industry being replaced by his younger competitor, leading to the former becoming jealous; he further added "the situations in the film are what we come across in every field. We often find someone reigning supreme in one industry only to be eventually replaced by another. Isai deals with the emotional turmoil and the jealousy one who is pushed from a position of confidence experiences."^[1] Initially the film was produced by Victor Raj Pandian under the ASA Productions banner which was credited in the first look posters.^[3] But the company opted out and the project was eventually taken over by S. Subbiah of SS Productions.^[4]

Suryah took three months for finalising the female lead and 124 girls from all over India auditioned,^[1] before Oriya-based actress Sulagna Panigrahi in her Tamil debut.^[5][6] She was credited as Savithri.^[7] Prakash Raj initially agreed to play the antagonist but opted out of the cast in January 2013 due to scheduling conflicts. Later, that June, Sathyaraj was confirmed to replace Prakash Raj.^[8] Sharad KRG, former head of marketing in AGS Cinemas, played the role of Suryah's business manager.^[9] He described his role as a "direct contrast" to his earlier role in Maattrraan (2012).^[10] Gibran Osman plays the role of an illusionist. He said, "I took on this role so I could learn a lot from Suryah".^[11]

Suryah also planned to cast four veteran directors in cameo appearances, with one of them being K. Viswanath. Though Viswanath filmed scenes, they did not make the final cut.^[12] Later, Vishnuvardhan,^[13] A. R. Murugadoss and Raju Sundaram filmed scenes as the only three directors.^[14]

Principal photography commenced in late May.^[3][15] By June 2012, scenes featuring Vishnuvardhan were shot in an information technology park at Tambaram.^[16] By late-August 2012, the first schedule was complete, and the second schedule began on a set constructed at Binny Mills. A large waterfall set was erected for the schedule.^[17] That August, Suryah revealed that he had created a village set in Kodaikanal which consisted of 30 houses and a church in Parapatti, one of the highest hills in the location. He explained that, as per the script, "I go to the village which is surrounded by forests in search of material for my album, Sound of Nature".^[18] Cinematographer Soundararajan claimed that it was difficult to access and shoot from that location.^[19] As of December 2013, the film was nearly complete except for one song which was left to be shot.^[20] Filming wrapped by January 2014.^[21]

The film's plot is said to be inspired from certain real-life incidents that occurred in the lives of Ilayaraaja and A. R. Rahman even though it was denied by Suryah himself.^[22] He added that the situations were common in each industry, citing the examples in the Tamil music scene, he added how M. S. Viswanathan slowly made his presence felt when K. V. Mahadevan was at his peak, and Ilaiyaraaja took over Viswanathan's positions, followed by Rahman's entry adding "I'm a great fan of all the four composers, and it would be wrong to say my film targets two of them".^[22] M. Suganth of The Times of India noted one similarity with the American film The Truman Show (1998): "Shiva doesn't realize that everyone around his acting a specified role and starts doubting if he has genuinely gone mad".^[23] Gauthaman Bhaskaran noted the climactic sequence in the style of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense (1999) which "can be viewed both as a surprise and a shock".^[24]

The music and background score of the film was composed by S. J. Suryah, making his debut as a composer through this film. The soundtrack album features eight tracks with three instrumentals; the songs were penned by Madhan Karky. The soundtrack album was released in November 2014.^[25][26]