[2] The film has music and background score composed by A. R. Rahman;[3] cinematography and editing were done by Marc Koninckx and Vivek Harshan respectively.

Maryan is an emotional journey of a common man to an unknown place with the hope to come home and lead a better life.

[1] The film revolves around a story of human survival adapted from a newspaper article of a real-life crisis event, when three oil workers from Tamil Nadu were kidnapped and taken hostage in Sudan by mercenaries.

[7] Bharatbala narrated the story to Dhanush in September 2011, and the film was announced officially in March 2012, revealing the details of the cast and crew.

The commencement of the principal photography took place on the same date, and was primarily shot across Sudan and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.

[12] This movie is inspired from a newspaper article of a real-life crisis event, where three oil workers from India were kidnapped and taken hostage in Sudan by mercenaries.The dubbed Telugu version of the film titled Mariyaan was released on 11 September 2015.

[13] Mariyaan Joseph is a fisherman in a village named Neerody in Kanniyakumari district, Tamil Nadu.

Once, Panimalar is caught in unfortunate circumstances and to support her financially, Maryan is forced to take up employment on contract basis for two years in Sudan.

He successfully completes his tenure and packs bags in jubilation to return to his lady love, but tragedy strikes in the form of Sudanese extremists, who end up kidnapping Maryan and two of his coworkers, demanding money for their freedom.

He gets separated from Saami, who gets killed later on, and gets lost in the desert and suffers from dehydration and confronts cheetahs as his mirage.

In early 2011, director Bharat Bala read about a 2008 incident involving three immigrant oil workers from India being kidnapped in the Darfur region of Sudan and how they had managed to escape from post being hostages.

In late September 2011, the director narrated the first half of the film script to actor Dhanush and he agreed play the character Maryan.

[6] The director opined that the fishing community in southern India goes through terrible hardship and countries like Nigeria, Sudan, Libya borrow them as hard labor.

The character played by actor Dhanush is a physically strong, economically poor but simple man from a very remote village who was in need of a job and hence, this forms the outline of the film.

[6] A press release from March 2013 along with a poster revealed the film's outline as "A young man is faced with adversity.

Along his thrilling journey is a tryst with adventure, a smattering of drama and a gritty tale that shows the power of love in extreme circumstances.

"[16] In an interview with Zee News, Bharatbala quoted, "Even though it (Maryan) is about the fight for survival, it deals with several other emotions such as love, separation and struggle.

The first schedule of the film began in Namibia, with scenes including a fight sequence supervised by Dilip Subarayan, being canned.

[18] The song "Nenje Ezhu" was shot in Namibia's Coastal Deserts featuring the leading duo.

[27] The day after release, the track "Nenjae Ezhu" topped all the charts with over one crore online listeners.

[31] The third teaser as well as a promotional film poster depicting a smoking Dhanush[32][33] were criticised by former Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India, Anbumani Ramadoss.

[36] On 31 March 2013, another 40-second teaser with a musical score was released that showed Dhanush with a spear in his hand, diving into deep sea in a breath and hunting on the seabed.

[39] After the trailer garnered nearly seven lakh views in one day on Sony India's music channel, it was re-released as an upgraded Vevo version.

[40] On 13 June 2013, a press meet headed by the director claimed that the film utilised the Auro 3D sound technology.

[41] The actor, director and the music composer promoted the film at an event at Jaya TV studios that was aired live on 23 June 2013.

[46] The release date of 21 June 2013 was cancelled to avoid clash with Dhanush's Hindi debut film Raanjhanaa and delayed process for censoring.

[55] At The Times of India, N Venkateswaran gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and quoted, "A soulful love story, but candy floss is not on the menu.

[57] Sandesh of One India Entertainment summarised, "Dhanush's sufferings on-screen, bursting and agony during emotional scenes have come out well.

"[59] Critical review board at Behindwoods gave the verdict, "A film with breathtaking visuals, heart-stopping music, terrifically talented cast set on a very leisurely paced narrative."

All over Karnataka, especially in Bengaluru City the film opened with a mixed response and second weekend's occupancy was less than 40% at the multiplexes.