Asin was the first choice for Premam, director Alphonse Putharen says in an interview

Director Alphonse Putharen's Premam is a runaway hit not just in Kerala but across the country. The film was remade in Telugu as Premam with Naga Chaitanya in the lead role. Often Alphonse Putharen interacts with fans on his Facebook page. Recently, a fan asked him a question about Premam for which Alphonse replied that he initially considered Asin to play Sai Pallavi's role of Malar in the film. However, neither Alphonse nor Nivin Pauly could reach her. So they had to consider Sai Pallavi for the role, which became iconic.

Alphonse Putharen's message read, "In the beginning when I wrote the script it was Malayalam. I wanted Asin to act in Malar’s Malayalam version. The character was from Fort Kochi... I couldn’t contact Asin. Nivin also tried. Then I gave up the idea and wrote it in Tamizh. This is in the beginning stage of the script. I studied in Ooty when I was too young and then did my film studies in Chennai. That is why the strong Tamizh connection." Premam is a Malayalam film, which ran for more than 200 days in Chennai in selected theatres.