Production
Development
S. Shankar began discussing plans to make a sequel to his 1996 film, Indian, as early as May 2015. Initial discussions were held with the producer of the original film, A. M. Rathnam of Sri Surya Movies, who stated it was too early to talk about the project.[18] Shankar later became busy with the production of 2.0 (2018) and delayed starting the project, but he continued working on a story theme for Indian 2. In late-September 2017, the film was publicly announced during the finale of the Tamil reality television show Bigg Boss in Chennai.[19] The host Kamal Haasan, who also played the lead in the original film, was confirmed as the lead actor and prominent Telugu film producer Dil Raju was announced to fund the project, for his film studio Sri Venkateswara Creations, thus marking his debut in Tamil.[20][21] However, Raju backed out producing the film, citing the high production costs involved,[22] and later Allirajah Subaskaran of Lyca Productions took over as the film's producer in October 2017.[23][24][25]
The film marks Shankar's reunion with Haasan after a hiatus of 24 years. Shankar decided to work with Anirudh Ravichander for the first time,[26] rather than his regular collaborator A. R. Rahman, who scored music for its predecessor.[27] His inclusion was later confirmed in late December 2018.[28] Ravi Varman, A. Sreekar Prasad and T. Muthuraj were hired as the cinematographer, editor and production designer, respectively.[29] Writers Jeyamohan, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Lakshmi Saravanakumar were all signed on to help complete the film's script and dialogues.[30][31]
Despite several proposed announcements of starting dates, the film's shoot was delayed throughout 2018 owing to Shankar's commitments with 2.0, which also faced significant production delays. Haasan also decided to use the time to release his long-delayed Vishwaroopam II (2018) and commit to his political career. In August 2018, Shankar and Haasan, announced that the film's shoot will commence in December 2018,[32] Lyca Productions, later officially announced the film on 7 November 2018, coinciding with Haasan's birthday.[33][34] Muthuraj began working on the production design during November 2018,[35] as the film's shoot was scheduled to start in late 2018; however the delay in its set work, made the team to postpone its shoot to early-2019.[36] Haasan would receive around ₹1.5 billion (US$19 million) as renumeration for the film, the highest in his career.[37]
Casting
In December 2018, Kajal Aggarwal was announced as the lead actress.[38] For her role, Aggarwal learnt the basics of the Indian martial arts form Kalaripayattu.[39] Siddharth was confirmed to play another role in the film,[40][41] after the team had initially held discussions with the likes of Silambarasan,[42] Dulquer Salmaan and Arya for the same character.[43][44] Ajay Devgn agreed to play the antagonist in the film,[45] but production delays meant that he could not commit dates for the films.[46][47] Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham were considered as replacements, but neither actor was signed.[48][49][50] Other actors including Delhi Ganesh and RJ Balaji were also signed to portray supporting roles in the film.[51][52] However, Balaji opted out of the film in October 2019.[53] Nedumudi Venu was also set to reprise his role from the first film,[54] but died in October 2021 after post COVID-19 complications.[55]
Closer to the start of the second schedule, actors Vidyut Jammwal and Bobby Simha were signed on for roles.[56][57] While, the latter confirmed his role in the film,[58] the former denied such claims.[59] Rakul Preet Singh also joined the film to star opposite the character played by Siddharth,[60][61] Aishwarya Rajesh was expected to join the film,[62] but due to call sheet issues,[63][64] she was replaced by Priya Bhavani Shankar.[65][66] Vivek confirmed that he will be a part of the project,[67] collaborating with Haasan for the first time,[68] where he plays the role of a CBI officer in the film.[69] It was considered to be one of his posthumous films following his death in April 2021.[70] Actors Samuthirakani and George Maryan also joined the cast in supporting roles.[71] After Shankar was impressed with Telugu actor Vennela Kishore's performance in Bhale Bhale Magadivoy (2015), Kishore was announced to play a supporting role and has allotted 70 days for the film, making his full-fledged Tamil debut.[13]
In November 2022, Gulshan Grover confirmed his presence in a principal role.[72] At the same month, Yograj Singh, father of former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, also participated in a major schedule held at Chennai.[73] British actor Benedict Garrett was confirmed as a part of the cast,[17] while Kalidas Jayaram also joined the film in a prominent role during the film's shoot in Taiwan in April 2023.[74] S. J. Suryah was reported to play the film's antagonist,[75] and officially confirmed his participation in the film in September 2023.[76] The film also marked the posthumous appearances of Manobala and G. Marimuthu following their respective deaths in May and September 2023.[77][78]
Filming
A series of promotional posters featuring Haasan in his character were released in early January 2019 and production subsequently started on 18 January 2019.[79][46] A week-long shoot was held at a memorial home near Government General Hospital in Chennai, before the team also shot scenes at a nearby film studio.[80] However the film was again delayed after the makers had trouble with the created sets.[81][82] The shoot was pushed further owing to the Indian general election in May 2019,[83] where Haasan's political party participated.[84] Throughout the development process in 2018 and early 2019, the makers regularly denied media reports that the film had been shelved.[85] Later, the shooting was resumed in May 2019, post elections.[86] Owing to the long break between the schedules, cinematographer Ravi Varman also left the project after becoming committed to Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan: I,[87][88] and was subsequently replaced by R. Rathnavelu who previously worked with Shankar in Enthiran (2010).[89][90]
The second schedule began on 12 August 2019, at MGR Film City in Chennai,[91] with scenes featuring Rakul Preet Singh being shot.[92][93] Siddharth and Priya Bhavani Shankar too joined the sets on 16 August,[94] and later Haasan too joined the sets on mid-September, where his portions being filmed.[95] Haasan and team, later moved to a city hotel in T. Nagar, to proceed the shoot further.[96] By 12 September, the second schedule which took place in Chennai had been completed.[97] On 19 September, the team went to Rajahmundry, shoot the film's sequences featuring Haasan.[98] Later on 23 October, Haasan and his team went to Bhopal to shoot the film at its third schedule.[99]
On 25 October 2019, it was reported that a massive political rally along with a fight sequence,[100] involving Haasan and 2000 junior artistes was shot in Bhopal at the cost of ₹40 crore (equivalent to ₹50 crore or US$6.2 million in 2023).[101][102] On 30 October 2019, it was reported that the makers head to Gwalior for a 12-day long shoot schedule,[103] which was completed within seven days.[104] Post the completion, the actor went to Chennai, to attend a felicitation ceremony for his 60 years in Tamil cinema,[105] followed by a surgery on 22 November to remove an implant that was performed after he met with an accident in 2016.[106] Scenes without featuring Haasan were canned, to complete major portions of the film, and planned to shoot his portions, after his recovery.[107] On 21 January 2020, it was reported that Haasan will shoot for the film post his recovery, and it will take place at the EVP Film City, Chennai which will last for 35 days.[108][109] It was reported that the film's team will change the location from China to Italy, due to fear of the COVID-19 pandemic.[110]
Accident in the sets
On 19 February 2020, during the shooting of the film, a crane carrying a heavy flash light fell on the sets,[111] resulting in the deaths of three crew members,[112] including an assistant director and leaving ten more injured.[113] Haasan, Shankar and Aggarwal had narrow escapes.[114][115] A case was filed against Lyca Productions, along with three other persons by the Chennai police in connection with the accident on 21 February;[116] The crane operator Rajan who absconded post the incident, was arrested and booked under three sections, the same day.[117] Later Haasan and Shankar were summoned by the CBI, to investigate the accident during the sets.[118][119]
On 26 February 2020, a week after the incident, Haasan wrote a letter to Lyca Productions regarding to conduct a safety audit for the prevention of any unfortunate events.[120] The very same day, Subaskaran released a statement on Twitter, stating the shoot was held completely under the supervision of Haasan and Shankar.[121][122] On 28 February 2020, Shankar announced that a donation of ₹1 crore (equivalent to ₹1.2 crore or US$150,000 in 2023) will be given to the family of the deceased.[123] Following the accident, the team planned to shift the shooting location from EVP Film City to Binny Mills.[124]
COVID-19 shutdown and further delays
Filming was further delayed to the COVID-19 restrictions that came into effect during March 2020.[125] Haasan planned to resume shooting in January 2021,[126][127] after hosting the fourth season of Bigg Boss.[128] In September 2020, Haasan also signed Lokesh Kanagaraj's Vikram during the intermediate timeline,[129] and Shankar also felt disappointed with the production house for not taking a call on the resumption of the shoot.[130] According to The Times of India, a spokesperson from the production team told that:
"Shankar and his team were hoping that they would resume the shoot once the government allows film shoots with a larger crew. But now, the production house wants to bring down the cost further to make up for the losses as a result of the lockdown. But Shankar, who has already brought down the budget from `400 crore to ` 220 crore after their first disagreement, feels it would be very hard to make the film as he has envisioned with further budget cuts. So, the production house decided to play the waiting game and stayed mum on the resumption of the project. Meanwhile, Kamal Haasan has committed to Lokesh Kanagaraj's film. He was hoping to start that film after wrapping up work on Indian 2, and did not start production work on Lokesh's film. But after seeing the current deadlock, he did a photo shoot with celebrity photographer Venket Ram at AVM Studio a couple of days ago. This has made Shankar realise that he might lose precious time if he keeps sitting idle, waiting for the producers of Indian 2 to take a call on resumption of the shoot. So, he has dashed off a letter to them, asking them to provide him with their plans for the project, and allowing him to work on another film if they intend to delay things even further."[131]
The report also claimed they had been told that Shankar had completed around 60% cent of the film's portions, including the intermission sequence, and "Even though Kamal is now focusing on Lokesh's project, he is also keen on wrapping up this film because he feels the film will give a major boost to his political image in the upcoming state elections, and wants it to release at least by summer 2021."[131] However the company's COO, P. Kannan, denied it as a baseless rumour and stated that they did not get any kind of such information from the director. He added, "The film requires a huge crew of 500-600 people on the set, so the planning is going on. We are in the process of deciding how to move forward with the shoot, and in fact, we met Kamal Haasan yesterday to discuss this. We are hoping to resume the shoot soon."[131]
Due to the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, the crew planned to resume the shoot without Haasan in February 2021, with the other cast and the director were advised to keep themselves available for the shoot,[132] while Haasan's portions would be filmed post-elections.[133] That same month, Rathnavelu also opted out of the film citing schedule conflicts.[134][135] Aggarwal, in March 2021, stated that the reason for the delay was that most of the crew members are from the United States, they are unable to travel and work in India due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.[136]
Later in February 2021, Shankar officially announced his debut directorial in Telugu, RC15 (later titled as Game Changer) with Ram Charan,[137] and also planned for the Hindi remake of Anniyan, with Ranveer Singh, which was later shelved.[138] In April 2021, Lyca Productions submitted a suit against Shankar to restrain directing any other film before his commitments with the film.[139] However, Shankar denied Lyca's allegations and also argued that the production house cannot prevent him from making other films.[140] The court ordered Shankar and Lyca Productions to settle this issue amicably,[141] but negotiations failed,[142] with Shankar blaming Haasan and Lyca for the delay.[143][144] In June 2021, the Madras High Court denied the producer's appeal to stop Shankar directing other films.[145][146] Filming was further planned to be resumed in December 2021,[147] but pushed back further due to Haasan and Shankar's other commitments.[148]
Resumption
In May 2022, during the promotions of Vikram, Haasan indicated the plans of resuming the film, once Shankar completes Game Changer.[149] Following the film's success, plans to revive the film were being initiated,[150][151] and during June 2022, Udhayanidhi Stalin of Red Giant Movies confirmed he had discussions with Subaskaran and that filming would resume soon, though he did not say whether he would be co-producing or distributing the film.[152] On 24 August 2022, Red Giant Movies came on board as the co-producers,[153] and a preliminary schedule featuring Bobby Simha and other artists were filmed.[154][155] Ravi Varman, who earlier left the project, returned to handle cinematography.[156][157] During the same time, Shankar announced that he will be filming it simultaneously with Game Changer.[158] Haasan and Aggarwal joined the film's shooting, that was held at Tirupati on 21 September.[159][160] Both the artists performed the Kalaripayattu and Varma kalai art forms, under the guidance of Dr. A. K. Prakasan Gurukkal, the founder of the spiritual art form.[161][162] In November 2022, a minor schedule took place in Chennai with other supporting characters after Haasan was unavailable due to his commitments on hosting the sixth season of Bigg Boss.[73]
In February 2023, a month-long schedule was held at the Adityaram Studios in Chennai, where filming would be held for a single stretch and was considered to be the longest schedule.[163] In this schedule, several night shoots took place.[164] After the schedule wrap, the team planned for filming an action sequence set in train at South Africa.[165] On 1 April 2023, the team moved to Taiwan for filming a major sequence,[166] and thereafter, went to Johannesburg for filming the aforementioned train sequence on 12 April 2023.[167][168] Although being planned as a 12-day schedule, it was filmed within six days.[169] On 10 May 2023, Shankar filmed a major schedule in Chennai, which was completed on 31 May.[170][171] On 19 June 2023, a sequence was supposed to be filmed at the Chennai International Airport but was interrupted claiming that the crew did not obtain proper permission from the officials.[172]
After a four-month break, in November 2023, filming for the concurrent schedule began in Vijayawada.[173] The crew had shot few sequences at the Alankar Center at Gandhinagar with the presence of 8000 extras for four days,[174] and moved to Visakhapatnam for a 10-day schedule.[175] Shortly afterwards, the team moved to Chennai for filming the remaining sequences and in late-December 2023, the team wrapped the schedule except for filming two songs.[176] In early January 2024, it was announced that the production for the film has been completed.[177] However, Ananda Vikatan reported that filming for three songs were pending which would be shot in India before the 2024 Indian general election.[178]
Design
In June 2021, Seema Tabassum, Haasan's make-up artist claimed that the film consisted of using prosthetic makeups for Haasan and Aggarwal.[179] Haasan's friend and makeup artist Michael Westmore, who previously worked in the predecessor, provided inputs for the makeup and design during their meeting in United States in August 2022.[180][181] Margaux Lancester also joined the film's crew, post-completion of the Taiwan schedule in April 2023.[182] The production team members claimed that the prosthetic makeup takes around four to five hours, hence Haasan would come to the sets at 5:00 a.m. ahead of the shooting at 9:00 am. The crew had to be fast while shooting his portions as it would be really difficult for Haasan to shoot with the prosthetics due to the increase in temperature, and after filming those sequences it takes around two hours to remove the prosthetics.[183] Legacy Effects designed prosthetic makeup and animatronics, with Vance Hartwell and Pattanam Rasheed as the makeup artists. Haasan's costume designer Amritha Ram worked on the film, with Pallavi Singh, Gavin Miguel, Rocky and S. B. Satheesan.[184][185]
Post-production
The editing of the film began in May 2020, after Tamil Nadu government permitted resumption of post-production works of Tamil films that were interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were instructed to follow the necessary safety regulations.[186] The team decided to edit most of the available footage that were completed before the prolonged delay of the film's shoot.[187] Due to Vivek and Venu's deaths before production could be completed, Shankar reportedly decided to use visual effects to complete their remaining scenes.[188]
Full-fledged post-production works began during July 2023. Shankar collaborated with Lola Visual Effects, known for their work in several Hollywood films, to showcase younger looks of Haasan through de-aging technology,[189][190] and work on the visual effects began at the studio lot of Paramount Pictures.[190] V. Srinivas Mohan joined the film as the visual effects supervisor.[191] In October 2023, Haasan started dubbing for his portions in the film held at the Le Magic Lantern Studio in Chennai.[192][193] and the very same month the production company tweeted that they had received a copy of the first edit for the film.[194]
On January 2024, sources close from the production team claimed that the final edit has been locked and the post-production team currently worked on the digital intermediate, colour grading, previsualisation, computer graphics and several aspects, without making any amendments from the cut. Nearly four reels of the edit had been sent for the sound design and sound effects. Although the team intended to complete the film prior to the tentative April 2024 release, the producers wanted to announce the date only after being assured from all the post-production units.[195]
Music
The soundtrack album and background score are composed by Anirudh Ravichander, who is working with Shankar for the first time.[196] He replaces Shankar's frequent collaborator A. R. Rahman, who scored the original film.[197] This will mark the second collaboration of Anirudh with Haasan, after Vikram.[198] In an interview Rahman stated that "Kamal had mentioned me to score for its sequel, but Shankar eventually had other ideas. Shankar is a person who wants to get inspired. Sometimes, when you work with the same person back-to-back, you get bored. Also 2.0 is a difficult film that took me a long time to complete. Maybe Shankar thought he shouldn't make me overwork. That could be one of the reasons why he had chosen Anirudh."[27]
Anirudh Ravichander stated working with Shankar as a "dream come true moment"; he eventually quoted Indian is a cult album and one of his favourites from Rahman's composition.[199] In an interview with India Today, Anirudh stated about the comparisons of the first part to its sequel, that "With sequels, there are always comparisons on which one is better, but then nobody can match Rahman's work. I can never recreate the magic that Indian did in the 90s. Whatever I can do to the best of my abilities is what I am trying to do."[199] After the offer came his way in November 2017, Anirudh started composing for the songs during December 2017, and it took a year to complete the album, stating that the delay in the release of 2.0, have given him much time to work on the film's songs.[200]
In May 2018, lyricist Thamarai was hired to write one of the songs in the film, in her maiden collaboration with Shankar.[201] During the film's launch, lyricists Pa. Vijay, Vignesh Shivan and Vivek were hired for the technical crew.[202] However, only the former has been confirmed as the lyricist, while Kabilan Vairamuthu and Arivu also joined the songwriting team. In March 2023, Anirudh revealed that he would curate fresh tunes for the film score but would also incorporate Rahman's cues from the predecessor, as Rahman had granted him permission to reuse his compositions for the film.[203] A behind-the-scenes video of Anirudh composing a "peppy" number at his caravan at the film's sets, with the supervision of Shankar released in May 2023.[204]
In November 2023, it was announced that the audio rights for the film were acquired by Sony Music India.[205] The song "Come Back Indian" was featured in the glimpse video, which had lyrics penned by Arivu and sung by Anirudh himself.[206] Anirudh recorded the background score in January 2024.[195]
