Game Changer (film)

• Ram Charan in dual roles
• Srikanth
• S. J. Suryah
• Kiara Advani
• Anjali
• Jayaram
• Sunil
• Samuthirakani
• Prakash Raj
• Nassar
• Subhalekha Sudhakar
• Naveen Chandra
• Rajeev Kanakala
• Sumanth
• Murali Sharma
• Vaibhav Reddy

Development

In early February 2021, it was reported that S. Shankar had met Ram Charan and narrated the script of a historical drama film which impressed him. The project was reported to be film simultaneously in the Tamil and Telugu languages, with an announcement made on Valentine's Day that year.^[5] A few days later, Charan through his social media pages confirmed the collaboration between him and Shankar.^[6][7] The project was funded by Dil Raju and Sirish's Sri Venkateswara Creations, in their maiden collaboration with Shankar and Charan. The company made a public announcement on 12 February, confirming the project, under the working title RC15 and SVC50.^[8] The film's official title, Game Changer, was announced on 27 March 2023, on the occasion of Charan's birthday.^[9] 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). With Indian 2 re-starting production again, filming of Game Changer got troublesome and the budget was reportedly increased to ₹240 crore (US$30 million), to finish all schedules of the film.^[2]

Pre-production

Director Karthik Subbaraj wrote the film's original story with Shankar writing the screenplay.^[10] Sai Madhav Burra contributed to the dialogues.^[11]

Tirru was signed on as the cinematographer, marking his maiden collaboration with Shankar.^[12] The remaining technical team of the film consisted of editor Shameer Muhammed,^[13] action choreographer duo Anbariv, and art director Avinash Kolla.^[14] Thaman S would score the music in his first collaboration with Shankar as music director.^[15] Dance choreographers of the film include Jani Master, Prem Rakshith, Prabhu Deva, Bosco Martis, Ganesh Acharya, and Sandy Master.^[16][14]

Casting

Charan reportedly plays a dual role as a father and son.^[17] 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.^[18][19] Anjali was cast in a pivotal role, while Sunil, Srikanth, Jayaram, and Naveen Chandra were all confirmed to be a part of the film.^[20] In February 2022, S. J. Suryah was approached for a role and was later confirmed to be part of the film in September 2022.^[21][22]

Filming

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.^[23][24]

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.^[25] 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.^[26] The Times of India reported that nearly ₹23 crore (US$2.9 million) was spent on the song.^[27] During the schedule, the team 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.^[28]

The third schedule for the film commenced in February 2022.^[29] 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.^[30][31] Later the same month, it was reported that filming for Indian 2, also directed by Shankar, which the production was halted for two and a half years,^[32] would take place after wrapping up the film shoot.^[33] Charan took a break from filming to take part in the success celebrations of RRR and returned to filming in April. Charan and Advani began a 20-day schedule at Amritsar in April, to film their college portions.^[34][35] For undisclosed reasons, R. Rathnavelu joined the unit in Amritsar to complete the remaining portions in place of Tirru.^[36] In May, the crew shot a schedule in Visakhapatnam.^[37]

By July 2022, 60% of the filming was completed with Shankar 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.^{[38] [39]} In August, Shankar confirmed that he would be shooting both Game Changer and Indian 2, simultaneously.^[40] The filming was planned to resume in early September in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.^[40] In November 2022, 10 days of a schedule was filmed in New Zealand, where the team picturized an expensive song across multiple exotic locations in the country.^[39]

In February 2023, filming resumed with few scenes shot at Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Visakhapatnam, followed by Simhachalam and Charminar.^[41][42] A few pictures of scenes from the set were leaked online during the filming at the university.^[43] In March 2023, a song involving 100 dancers, choreographed by Prabhu Deva, was shot.^[44] In April 2023, Shankar revealed that he would be shooting the climactic scenes soon.^[45] On 26 April 2023, filming of the climactic scenes started under the supervision of Anbariv, in a special set in Shamshabad, Hyderabad.^[46] Charan shot high combat scenes with 1200 fighters for the same.^[47] On 9 May, filming of the climax was wrapped.^[48] In July, an action sequence choreographed by Peter Hein was wrapped in Hyderabad.^[49] Mysore schedule was started on 23 November,^[50] and was wrapped early December.^[51] In late December, a short schedule in Hyderabad, featuring Srikanth, Samuthirakani, S. J. Suryah, and others was wrapped up.^[52]

The film's soundtrack and score sung by Daler Mehndi, is composed by Thaman S, in his third collaboration with Charan after Naayak (2013) and Bruce Lee: The Fighter (2015). It is also the first musical collaboration, along with his second overall collaboration, with Shankar, after making his acting debut in Boys (2003).^[53] It also marks the fourth time Shankar working with another music composer besides his regular collaborator, A. R. Rahman. Thaman composed and recorded an introduction song on 14–15 July 2021 in Hyderabad, with the help of 135 musicians.^[54] The audio rights for the film were acquired by Saregama.^[55]

The song "Jaragandi" was leaked online in September 2023, which was reportedly made on a budget of ₹15 crore.^[56] Later, the makers announced the song as the first single and release on Diwali 2023.^[57] However, the highly negative response from the audience prompted Thaman to change the singers, delaying the official release of the song indefinitely.^[58][59] It released on 27 March 2024, on the occasion of Charan's 39th birthday.

Theatrical

In January 2022, Dil Raju expressed his intentions to release the film in January 2023 to coincide with Sankranthi.^[60] However, the film is reportedly pushed back to April 2024 to accommodate Raju's Tamil-language production Varisu and also due to production delays.^[61] The film will release in Telugu along with dubbed versions in Tamil and Hindi.^[62] Netflix reportedly bought the distribution rights of the film for ₹350 crore.^[63]

Home media

The digital distribution rights of the film were acquired by Amazon Prime Video and satellite rights have been acquired by Zee Telugu.^[64]

• Game Changer at IMDb