Sridhar initially decided to make Nenjirukkum Varai as revolving around the theme of war between India and Pakistan; the story was dropped after Sridhar learnt that Lal Bahadur Shastri and Muhammad Ayub Khan signed the Tashkent Declaration.

Retaining the title, he developed a new story inspired by the Bengali play Shudha (transl. Hunger).

The film was shot in black-and-white to emphasise the central theme of poverty, and none of the cast members applied make-up for their roles.

After the success of Vennira Aadai (1965), Sridhar decided to make a film titled Nenjirukkum Varai revolving around the theme of war between India and Pakistan with Sivaji Ganesan portraying an army colonel; however Sridhar decided to drop this film after reading an article about Lal Bahadur Shastri and Muhammad Ayub Khan signing the Tashkent Declaration.

[4][5] Sridhar then developed a story from the Bengali play Shudha, retaining the title Nenjirukkum Varai.

[11][12] Cinematography was handled by Balakrishnan who earlier worked as assistant cinematographer for Gemini Studios, and editing by N. M.

[7][1] Unlike Sridhar's earlier films such as Kadhalikka Neramillai (1964) and Vennira Aadai, Nenjirukkum Varai was shot in black-and-white to emphasise the central theme of poverty.