Prahlad Kakkar, a noted ad-maker, was convinced by Nambiar to make his debut in film by appearing in the role of a priest and consequently shot his scenes in Mangalore. Nishan, a Mumbai-based actor who had appeared in Malayalam language films, was also selected to play a role in the segment, while actress Rubi Chakravarti was also roped in to play Vikram’s mother in the film after Bejoy Nambiar approached for a role written with her in mind. Ratnavelu revealed that scenes were also canned in Kapu, Karnataka disguising Goa and that Vikram finished his portions for the film by March 2012. Mangalore beach was designed to replicate the beaches of Goa and a song featuring Remo Fernandes was also shot in February. The team thus shot scenes featuring Vikram and Isha Sharvani in Alleppey, Kerala in late February 2012, before moving to Kuttanad. Scenes involving Vikram were filmed first out of the three segments and were canned in locations which were meant to show a Goan backdrop. In January 2012, the producers signed Tabu and Isha Sharvani to play lead female roles in the film, with reports that Isha would be paired opposite Vikram. Canadian-Indian actor Vinay Virmani would play the third character called David in the film. Neil’s portions in the film would be shot in London.
Neil Nitin Mukesh was asked to sport a complete retro-gangster look, and grow a hefty moustache for his role in the film. However Oberoi opted out of the project after finding out that the film would be a bilingual, and the team considered Farhan Akhtar before replacing him with Neil Nitin Mukesh. Vivek Oberoi was also roped into play a titular character in the film.
Reports during the time also hinted that Shahrukh Khan would be roped in for a character but this proved to be untrue. Sanjeev Lamba of Reliance, the film’s producer, noted that the film had undergone changes and would be made a bilingual in Hindi and Tamil, with a third dubbed version in Telugu. Vinod and Sanu Varghese were recruited to shoot the respective segments. It was revealed that the film would simultaneously show tracks of three people named David: Vikram’s story takes place in Goa, while the two other stories happen in Mumbai and London and that they occur at different periods. The pair had previously worked together in Mani Ratnam‘s Raavan and Raavanan, in which Nambiar had been an assistant director. Bejoy Nambiar announced in December 2011 that he would make a Hindi film titled David, a gangster-comedy, and signed on Vikram to play a protagonist in the film.