Jayachandran is an orphan working in a hotel as a helper. It is assumed he gets his title name "Thotti Jaya" as he is found in a garbage bin as an infant. One day he beats and fends off a man who gets into a squabble with the hotel owner. The following night, the hotel owner rewards him with cash and dreads him the next morning. He realizes people only respect people they fear. So he walks out from the hotel and reaches Chennai. He is spotted by Seena Thana and is hired as a henchman. In an incident, Thotti Jaya gets entangled in a political and police trap. To escape from police, Thotti Jaya slips to Calcutta and goes into hiding. Meanwhile, Brinda, a college girl from Kanyakumari, comes to Calcutta on a tour along with her friends. Pimps operating in the red light area of Calcutta take away Brinda. Thotti Jaya accidentally meets Brinda when she tries to escape from the gang. He helps Brinda escape from the gang and takes her safely to Kanyakumari. On her way back home by train, Brinda starts admiring Thotti Jaya's niceties and gradually falls in love with him. When she expresses her desire, Thotti Jaya reciprocates her love, and both decide to enter into wedlock, but little does he know that Brinda is actually Seena Thana's daughter. Thotti Jaya takes away Brinda from her house and earns Seena Thana's wrath. Angered by this, Seena Thana summons his rowdy gangs and plots to bump off Thotti Jaya. How Thotti Jaya accomplishes his hopes of marrying Brinda is told in the remaining part of the story.
After finishing Sachein, Kalaipuli Thanu approved the plotline of narrated by V. Z. Durai. Durai wanted Jeevan to play lead role and also conducted test shoots with him but director was not impressed with his performance he replaced him with Simbhu. Thanu was initially reluctant to have him as lead actor since Thanu had misunderstandings with his father T. Rajender during the time of Coolikaaran, later he made up his mind. Nayanthara was initially selected as heroine but she was replaced with Gopika. Simbhu refused to dub for the film after shooting citing salary problems, the problem was resolved in Tamil Nadu Producers Council.
Soundtrack
There are six songs composed by Harris Jayaraj collaborated with Durai and Silambarasan for first and only time. Lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar, Thamarai, Kabilan. Yuvan Shankar Raja, who was first signed as the music director, composed one song for the film, not included in the soundtrack and is credited in the title card. "Yaaridamum" was re-used from Harris's own song "Ye Chilipi" from Telugu filmGharshana, remake of Kaakha Kaakha.
