Sivakarthikeyan reported to appear in a thick beard role similar to Nivin Pauly's look in Premam (2015). It was directed by Cibi Chakaravarthi, an associate director of Atlee, with Anirudh Ravichander being the music composer.
The project was officially announced on 27 January 2021, which was titled as Don and the actor himself co-produced the film under his Sivakarthikeyan Productions banner. In September 2020, Sivakarthikeyan announced another new project for Lyca Productions with a debutant director hired to helm the project. In a turn of events, Lyca Productions backed out of producing the venture and Vignesh Shivan too prioritised to revive his shelved project Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal which went on floors in late-2020. Vignesh also finalised the script for the film on June 2019, as the project is scheduled to begin production the following month. In March 2019, Lyca Productions announced another project featuring Sivakarthikeyan and Vignesh Shivan with Anirudh Ravichander set to score music.
However, the film failed to materialise and in March 2018, Sivakarthikeyan instead agreed to do another film for Raja, which became the M. Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green also obtained its rights for the forthcoming project. In August 2017, Sivakarthikeyan was reported to collaborate with his friend Vignesh Shivan, post Suriya's Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, with the films producer K. Gautham Vasudev Menon as cameo appearance.Samuthirakani as Chakaravathi's father.