Production

### Development

In March 2019, sources claimed that after *Bigil* (2019), Vijay will be working with Mohan Raja's next film. However, in May 2019, it was also announced that he will be working with Lokesh Kanagaraj for his 64th venture, which will be produced by Xavier Britto. Britto who is a relative of Vijay, produced two films for the actor, *Sendhoorapandi* (1993) and *Rasigan* (1994), both directed by Vijay's father S. A. Chandrasekhar. On 22 May 2019, it was reported that Vijay gave a call sheet for 120 days. An official announcement was made on 24 August 2019, by producer Britto, under his newly launched production banner XB Film Creators. Lalit Kumar and Jagadish Palaniswamy co-produced the film. Along with the news, he revealed some of the crew that will work on the film, with Anirudh Ravichander being approached as the music director and Silva for stunt choreography. Sathyan Sooryan and Philomin Raj were retained as the cinematographer and editor respectively for this film, after previously collaborated on the director's *Kaithi*. Originally launched under the tentative title *Thalapathy 64*, the official title *Master* was announced on 31 December 2019.

### Casting

In July 2019, it was reported that Arjun will be a part of the film as antagonist. However, the role went to Vijay Sethupathi. Kiara Advani, Raashi Khanna and Rashmika Mandanna, were reported to play the female leads, before Malavika Mohanan was finalised. The cast additions included Shanthanu Bhagyaraj and Antony Varghese, with the latter making his Tamil debut. Varghese later left the project, citing scheduling conflicts. He was later replaced by Arjun Das, who was a part of Lokesh's previous venture, *Kaithi*. Andrea Jeremiah also signed to be a part of the film in October 2019, followed by Brigida Saga and Gouri G. Kishan. Ramya Subramanian also joined the film's second schedule. The film's cast additions also included, Nassar, Sanjeev, Sriman, Srinath, Prem, Nagendra Prasad, Mahendran amongst others. Raveena Ravi dubbed Malavika Mohanan's voice. Actor Kathir's father made his acting debut with this film.

### Filming

Principal photography began with a traditional pooja ceremony on 3 October 2019; the film's cast and crew were present at the event. On 4 October, director Rathna Kumar posted on Twitter that he was co-writing the screenplay for this project along with Lokesh. Pon Parthiban, who previously collaborated with Kanagaraj in *Kaithi*, was signed to co-write the screenplay with Kanagaraj and Kumar. The film's first schedule took place in Chennai for 15 days. Post the completion of the first schedule, the film's team planned for a 20-day schedule in Delhi. Vijay and the film's crew members went to Delhi for the second schedule in November 2019. Stills from the film's shooting spot at Shri Ram College of Commerce in the North Campus, where a song sequence is being filmed, which found its way to the internet, went viral. The film's shoot briefly delayed due to pollution in Delhi. After few pictures from the film's shooting spots were leaked, the team proceeded to have the images removed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The crew went to film few important scenes, featuring Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi at Shimoga district in Karnataka after the Delhi schedule being completed. However, the makers planned to shoot few scenes in Chennai, before the schedule. Shanthanu and Sethupathi went to Shimoga in December 2019. Art director Satheesh Kumar, stated in an interview, that more than 15 sets were made on the film's shoot, with one of them being the Metro train sets, which is being used for the first time in Tamil cinema. The makers went to film fight scenes featuring Sethupathi and Vijay at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC). However the film's shoot was interrupted twice, when Vijay was summoned by the Income Tax Officials on 5 February, about potential tax evasion, and later on 7 February, when members of Bharatiya Janata Party, protested in front of the NLC. The film's shooting wrapped in February 2020.