The making of Leo: How Lokesh Kanagaraj convinced Vijay to go pan-India

The upcoming movie Leo will mark Tamil superstar Vijay's foray into the latest trend of making 'pan-Indian movies.' Since the success of movies like Baahubali and KGF, there is a huge demand for South Indian movies in the northern states. And the big producers in the south are trying to cash in on the craze by making movies that appeal to people across the country and releasing them in multiple languages. 

"When we initially planned Leo, it was not a pan-Indian movie. When Vikram became a hit, I asked Vijay sir to make Leo a 'pan-Indian' movie," said producer S S Lalit Kumar of Seven Screen Studios. 

Also Read: The Verdict: Mahesh Babu's Okkadu vs Vijay's Ghilli, which movie is the ultimate winner?

Vijay, however, was not yet ready to jump on the pan-India bandwagon and he said he was content with making movies for audiences here. "I insisted that we should go to the next stage. Later Lokesh and I convinced him," he said. 

Following that decision, Lalit revealed they made a lot of changes to the script keeping in mind the sensibilities of audiences from different regions. "We considered a lot of things, including the cast. A pan-India film is not just casting an actor from every language. This movie and the script demanded Sanjay Dutt. So we approached him. That's how Leo took the shape of a pan-India movie," he explained. 

While getting the right cast and budget was only half the battle, creating awareness about the movie in the Hindi belt was going to be a herculean task. Lalit also noted that devising the right promotional strategy was crucial for the success of a pan-India movie. "From now on, I will focus on promoting this movie to the people in North India," he added. 

The shooting of Leo is now going on in full swing in Chennai. The film's production will be completed in a month, following which the post-production work will begin. Lokesh Kanagaraj is helming the project and it's expected to be part of his crime cinematic universe. 

Besides Vijay, the movie also stars Trisha, Arjun Sarja, Priya Anand, Mysskin, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Mansoor Ali Khan.