Development

On 12 February 2021, director Shankar and Ram Charan, through their respective social media pages, announced that they were collaborating for the former's next directorial after Indian 2. Jointly funded by Dil Raju and Sirish under Sri Venkateswara Creations, the venture marks as Shankar's directorial debut in Telugu cinema. It was tentatively titled as RC15, referring to Charan's 15th film in the lead role, and SVC50, which referred to the production houses' 50th venture,^[3][4] while the official title, Game Changer, was announced on 27 March 2023, on the occasion of Charan's birthday.^[5] 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]

Pre-production

Director Karthik Subbaraj wrote the film's original story with Shankar writing the screenplay.^[6] Sai Madhav Burra contributed the dialogues.^[7]

Tirru is signed as the cinematographer who worked for four schedules.^[8] The technical team of the film consists of editor Shameer Muhammed,^[9] action choreographer duo Anbariv and art director Avinash Kolla.^[10] Thaman S would score the music, in his first film with the director.^[11] Dance choreographers of the film includes Jani Master, Prem Rakshith, Prabhu Deva, Bosco Martis, Ganesh Acharya and Sandy Master.^[12][10]

Casting

Charan reportedly plays a dual role as a father and son.^[13] 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.^[14][15] Anjali was cast in a pivotal role, while Sunil, Srikanth, Jayaram, and Naveen Chandra were all confirmed to be a part of the film.^[16] In February 2022, S. J. Suryah was approached for a role and was later confirmed to be part of the film in September 2022.^[17][18]

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.^[19][20]

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.^[21] 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.^[22] The Times of India reported that nearly ₹23 crore (US$2.9 million) was spent on the song.^[23] 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.^[24]

The third schedule for the film commenced in February 2022.^[25] 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.^[26][27] 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,^[28] would take place after wrapping up the film shoot.^[29] 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.^[30][31] For undisclosed reasons, R. Rathnavelu joined the unit in Amritsar to complete the remaining portions in place of Tirru.^[32] In May, the crew shot a schedule in Visakhapatnam.^[33]

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.^{[34] [35]} In August, Shankar confirmed that he would be shooting simultaneously for both Game Changer and Indian 2.^[36] The filming for the film was planned to resume in early September in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.^[36] 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.^[35]

In February 2023, filming was resumed with few scenes shot at Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Visakhapatnam followed by Simhachalam and Charminar.^[37][38] Few pictures containing scenes from the set were leaked online, during the filming at the university.^[39] In March 2023, song involving 100 dancers, choreographed by Prabhu Deva was shot.^[40] In April 2023, Shankar revealed that he would be shooting the climax scenes soon.^[41] On 26 April 2023, film's climax scenes filming started under the supervision of Anbariv, in a special set in Shamshabad, Hyderabad.^[42] Charan shot high combat scenes with 1200 fighters for the same.^[43] On 9 May, filming of the climax was wrapped.^[44] In July, an action sequence choreographed by Peter Hein was wrapped in Hyderabad.^[45] Mysore schedule was started on 23 November,^[46] and was wrapped early December.^[47] In late December, a short schedule in Hyderabad, featuring Srikanth, Samuthirakani, SJ Suryah, and others was wrapped up.^[48]