Game Changer (film)

In February 2021, it was announced that Shankar and Ram Charan were collaborating for a film produced by Dil Raju and Sirish.[3] The film marks Shankar's directorial debut in Telugu cinema.[4] The project was produced under Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations. The company made a public announcement on 12 February 2021, confirming the project.[5]

They began with the working title of RC15 as it is intended to be 15th film of Charan as a lead actor. It is also referred to as SVC50 as it marks the 50th production venture of Sri Venkateswara Creations.[6] The film's official title was revealed as Game Changer on 27 March 2023, on the occasion of Charan's birthday.[7] Shankar gave an estimated cost of ₹200 crore (US$25 million) for the film's production. Later, on the request of the producer, the budget was reportedly cut down to ₹170 crore (US$21 million). Also with Kamal Haasan’s Indian 2 getting back again to shooting sets, the issues got more troublesome for the film and the budget was reportedly increased to ₹450 crore (US$56 million) to finish all schedules of the film.[2]

Director Karthik Subbaraj wrote the film's original story with Shankar writing the screenplay.[8] Sai Madhav Burra contributed the dialogues.[9]

Tirru is signed as the cinematographer who worked for four schedules.[10] The technical team of the film consists of editor Shameer Muhammed,[11] action choreographer duo Anbariv and art director Avinash Kolla.[12] Thaman S would score the music, in his first film with the director.[13] Dance choreographers of the film includes Jani Master, Prem Rakshith, Prabhu Deva, Bosco Martis, Ganesh Acharya and Sandy Master.[14][12]

Charan reportedly plays a dual role as a father and son.[15] In July 2021 it was announced that Kiara Advani was signed on to be the lead actress which marks her second collaboration with Charan after Vinaya Vidheya Rama.[16][17] Anjali was cast in a pivotal role, while Sunil, Srikanth, Jayaram, and Naveen Chandra were all confirmed to be a part of the film.[18] In February 2022, S. J. Suryah was approached for a role and was later confirmed to be part of the film in September 2022.[19][20]

The film was formally launched with a muhurat shot on 8 September 2021 at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad with a traditional pooja ceremony attended by Ranveer Singh, Chiranjeevi, and S. S. Rajamouli.[21][22]

Principal photography began on 22 October 2021 and the first schedule was completed in the first week of November. Filming took place in Maharashtra at Pune, Satara and Phaltan.[23] Later that month, a song was shot for 10 days, at a specially erected set in Ramoji Film City. The song, which also included international dancers, was choreographed by Jani Master.[24] The Times of India reported that nearly ₹23 crore (US$2.9 million) was spent on the song.[25] During the schedule, the team has also shot a 7-minute action sequence at a reported cost of ₹70 crore (US$8.8 million). Anbariv and others were hired to design these action sequences in the film.[26]

The third schedule for the film commenced in February 2022.[27] Planned for about 20 days, the shoot take place in Andhra Pradesh at Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Kovvur and other nearby places of West Godavari and East Godavari districts.[28][29] Later the same month, it was reported that filming for Indian 2, also directed by Shankar for which the production was halted for two and a half years,[30] would take place after wrapping up the film shoot.[31] Charan took a break from filming to take part in RRR film's success celebrations, and returned to shooting in April. Charan and Advani began a 20-day schedule at Amritsar in April to shoot college portions.[32][33] For undisclosed reasons, R. Rathnavelu joined the unit in Amritsar to complete the remaining portions in place of Tirru.[34] In May, the crew shot a schedule in Visakhapatnam.[35]

By July 2022, 60% of the filming was completed with the director intending to wrap up filming by December. Earlier the same month, a massive song involving around 1000 dancers was shot in Punjab and Hyderabad. After the song shoot, an action sequence involving 1200 fighters was planned.[36] [37] In August, Shankar confirmed that he would be shooting simultaneously for both Game Changer and Indian 2.[38] The filming for the film was planned to resume in early September in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.[38] In November 2022, 10 days of schedule happened in New Zealand where the team picturized an expensive song across multiple exotic locations in New Zealand.[37]

In February 2023, filming was resumed with few scenes shot at Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Visakhapatnam followed by Simhachalam and Charminar.[39][40] Few pictures containing scenes from the set were leaked online, during the filming at the university.[41] In March 2023, song involving 100 dancers, choreographed by Prabhu Deva was shot.[42] In April 2023, Shankar revealed that he would be shooting the climax scenes soon.[43] On 26 April 2023, film's climax scenes filming started under the supervision of Anbariv, in a special set in Shamshabad, Hyderabad.[44] Charan shot high combat scenes with 1200 fighters for the same.[45] On 9 May, filming of the climax was wrapped.[46] In July, an action sequence choreographed by Peter Hein was wrapped in Hyderabad.[47]