Director R. T. Nesan, a former assistant director of M. Raja, described Jilla as a "Madurai-based movie." Mohanlal liked the script and accepted the film.Meanwhile, Nisha Agarwal was rumored to be performing in the film, but she denied these rumors on Twitter, stating that she had not been approached for a film role.
Kajal Aggarwal and Poornima Bhagyaraj were also slated to perform in the film. Gautam Kurup was signed up as the second antagonist.Niveda Thomas said that she would be playing the daughter of Mohanlal's character and sister of Vijay's character. Due to clash of dates, cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam was replaced by R. Ganesh. During a photoshooting with the main cast, Nesan announced that filming would take place in Madurai, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh, while songs would be filmed overseas