the film required a localized dwelling of brahmins as the setting and vasudev found one in vaikunthapura, near sringeri in mysore state (now karnataka). despite intervention from the sringeri sharada peetham, the makers received cooperation from the locals during filming. in an interview with "the times of india" in 2014, ananthamurthy said, "vaikunthapura had a population of pure brahmins. but the women of the agrahara where we shot the movie let tom [cowan] enter the kitchen. if the locals had known the theme, they would have never allowed the shooting to take place. they must have regretted it after the film's release. but the place became famous after the movie". cowan worked for 30 days, shooting 900 shots at an average of 30 shots per day, before the film was completed in a paltry 90,000.