Oh Manapenne

In 2016, Gautham Menon bought the rights to remake the Telugu film Pelli Choopulu (2015) in Tamil.[2] The remake, Pon Ondru Kandein, would have been directed by Senthil Veerasamy and produced by Menon under the banner Ondraaga Entertainment with Vishnu Vishal and Tamannaah starring,[3] but was shelved due to budgetary issues.[4] The remake rights were later sold to A Studios LLP, A Havish Production, SP Cinemas, Madhav Media and Third Eye Entertainment,[5][6] with Kaarthikk Sundar, a former associate of A. L. Vijay, making his directorial debut.[7] The film was produced by Satyanarayana Koneru and Ramesh Varma Penmesta, the screenplay was written by Deepak Sundarrajan, cinematography was handled by Krishnan Vasant, and editing by Kripakaran.[6]

In December 2019, Harish Kalyan and Priya Bhavani Shankar were cast as the lead pair.[8][9] While Kaarthikk thought of the lead characters of Pelli Choopulu, Harish and Priya came to his mind and he was convinced they could pull off the roles of a "boy-next-door" and "bossy character" respectively with conviction.[10] The film is the debut of theatre actor Abishek Kumar, who Kaarthik cast because of their friendship and Kaarthik's belief that he was a "natural actor".[1]

Principal photography began on 11 December 2019,[7] and wrapped in February 2020,[11] a week before the COVID-19 lockdown in India was announced. Post-production works began soon after filming wrapped. According to Kaarthikk, "The lockdown only helped us as we could patiently edit and get it done".[10] The title Oh Manapenne was revealed on 1 October 2020, derived from the song of the same name from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010). Kaarthikk said, "We wanted to have a title that refers to weddings/matchmaking. The names that we had zeroed in on were either too old or not interesting enough", but when he was listening to the song, he chose that as the film's title.[12]