Leo (2023 Indian film)

Leo is the second collaboration of Vijay with Lokesh Kanagaraj after Master (2021).

In early 2021, it was reported that Lokesh Kanagaraj would reunite with Vijay for a second film after Master (2021),[8] after Lokesh's commitments on Vikram (2022),[9] whereas Vijay would collaborate with Nelson for Beast (2022) and would subsequently sign Vamshi Paidipally's project, which would be later titled Varisu (2023).[10] In March 2022, Lokesh confirmed that there were discussions for him to direct Vijay's 67th film.[11] That May, he confirmed the project, tentatively titled Thalapathy 67.[12]

The project was funded by S. S. Lalit Kumar's Seven Screen Studio, which had distributed and co-produced Master,[13] while Vijay's manager, Jagadish serves as a co-producer. The company made a public announcement on 30 January 2023, confirming the project,[14][15] and the film's official title was revealed as Leo on 3 February 2023, through a promotional video.[16][17] The film is also produced by The Route.[18] The film is being made on a budget of ₹250–300 crore, and Vijay was reported to receive ₹120 crore (US$15 million) as remuneration.[1] However, he reportedly decided to take the revenue sharing model, to benefit the film's production; as per the basis, he would receive ₹50 crore (US$6.3 million) as an advance, and a chunk of the profits would be received as the actor's remuneration.[19] Vijay was not in favour of making Leo a pan-Indian film as he wanted to focus on satisfying the Tamil audience. The actor, however, changed his mind after Lalit and Jagadish convinced him. Some changes were also made to the original story to help the film cater to a wider audience.[20][21]

It took Lokesh nearly six months for the writing and pre-production.[22] Lokesh co-wrote the film's script along with Rathna Kumar in his third consecutive collaboration with the director,[23][24] while Deeraj Vaidy, director of Jil Jung Juk (2016) also joined the writing team.[25] Lokesh said the film would be completely made in his style, unlike Master which he considered a 50% Vijay film and 50% his film.[22] A muhurat puja was held on 5 December 2022 at AVM Studios in Chennai with the film's cast and crew.[26] On 7 December, the team shot the promotional video for the film for nearly three days.[27]

In mid-January 2023, Manoj Paramahamsa was announced as cinematographer, marking his first collaboration with Lokesh and third with Vijay after Nanban (2012) and Beast.[28] Anirudh Ravichander would score the music, in his third consecutive film with the director.[29] Lokesh further retained most of his norm technicians including editor Philomin Raj, stunt choreography duo Anbariv, dance choreographer Dinesh Kumar and art director N. Sathees Kumar.[30] Praveen Raja would style the costumes for Vijay, along with his regular costume designers Pallavi Singh and Eka Lakhani.[31][32] Ramkumar Balasubramanian was appointed as executive producer of the film by the production house.[33]

Trisha was cast as the female lead, reuniting with Vijay 14 years since their last release, Kuruvi (2008). Sanjay Dutt would make his Tamil debut with this film.

Vijay would sport a grey-shaded hairstyle for his character, which was finalised after 30 different looks.[34][35] Trisha was cast as the female lead,[36] pairing opposite Vijay for the fifth time after Ghilli (2004), Thirupaachi (2005), Aathi (2006) and Kuruvi (2008).[37][38] Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was confirmed to play one of the main antagonists, in his Tamil film debut as well as his second South Indian film after K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022).[39] Dutt agreed to be a part of the project, after being impressed by the one-line narrated for the film.[40] Priya Anand also joined the film in an important role,[41] whilst Arjun was also cast in an important role.[42] He called it a "different" and "fresh" one that would justify his title "action king".[43]

Mysskin,[44] Sandy Master,[45] Gautham Vasudev Menon,[46] and Mansoor Ali Khan would play prominent roles.[47] Malayalam actor Mathew Thomas, would also make his Tamil debut with the film.[48] All of their inclusion were confirmed by the production house in late-January 2023.[49] Manobala and Janany Kunaseelan were present at the film's preliminary shooting, confirming their presence in the film;[50][51] the latter would make her acting debut in a feature with this film.[50] George Maryan was also featured in the muhurat puja, thereby confirming his inclusion.[52] Abhirami Venkatachalam and Babu Antony were also confirmed after participating in the film's Kashmir schedule.[53][54] Manobala died on 3 May 2023, making Leo a posthumous release for him.[55]

Principal photography began with the first schedule on 2 January 2023 at EVP Film City in Chennai.[56] Minor portions of the film were held at Kodaikanal in the last week of January.[57] The second schedule commenced in Kashmir on 1 February.[58] During this schedule, footage of Vijay was leaked and went viral,[59] prompting the film's official technology security partner to warn people against sharing leaked content or they would be deleted.[60] Furthermore, most of the cast and crew members were prohibited from using mobile phones on the sets, to prevent leakage of stills and videos from the shoot.[61] On 27 February 2023, Mysskin tweeted that he had completed filming his portions for the film, which included an intense stunt sequence.[62][63] In early March, Menon announced that he had completed filming for the film.[64]

Manoj Paramahamsa brought a RED V-raptor XL camera to shoot significant portions, a first for a Tamil film.[65] On 11 March, Dutt had started filming for his portions in the Kashmir schedule,[66][67] and completed them within six days.[34][68] Filming was halted on 21 March due to a minor earthquake in the location,[69] but resumed soon after. The Kashmir schedule ended on 23 March.[70][71] Lokesh, via Twitter, shared a behind-the-scenes video of the Kashmir schedule as a tribute to the crew of Leo, who worked behind the scenes in -5 to -6 degrees celsius. The director thanked each and every person from the crew for making the Kashmir schedule happen.[72][73] The third schedule was intended to begin on 29 March at Chennai,[74][75] but commenced on 5 April. A set was erected for this schedule which had postponed the filming to 5 April. Vijay, along with Dutt, Trisha, Arjun and Priya Anand will join the concurrent schedule,[76] which is reported to go on for 17 days.[18] Many action scenes were shot with a Mocobot camera.[77] Trisha, Dutt and Arjun would begin filming from May.[78][79] Lokesh also planned to shoot the introductory song sequence featuring at least 2000 background artists.[80] The final schedule will be shot in Hyderabad and the climax portion in Ramoji Film City,[81] and filming is expected to be completed by May.[82]

Post-production for the film will begin by late-May and early-June 2023, once the film completes its shooting and will go on for several months as the film involves extensive computer graphics and visual effects.[82] Monesh H., who previously worked in Cobra[83] and Ponniyin Selvan: II[84] is the visual effects supervisor, along with Al Zhara VFX and SkyHigh VFX, the film's principal visual effects studios.[85]

Leo is scheduled for a theatrical release on 19 October 2023.[17] Apart from Tamil, it is expected to be released in dubbed versions including Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages.[89]

According to Indian trade sources, Leo is set to become the first Tamil film to achieve a pre-release recovery of ₹413 crore (US$52 million) with the sale of satellite, digital, music, and theatrical rights,[90] out of which, ₹246 crore (US$31 million) has been earned from the film's non-theatrical rights.[91] The overseas theatrical rights were sold to Phars Films for ₹60 crore (US$7.5 million).[92]

The digital and satellite rights of the film were acquired by Netflix and Sun TV Network respectively.[93][94]