Siddharth Anand narrated this idea of making a big-scale action thriller against the backdrop of fighter jets while shooting the film War (2019).
Hrithik Roshan loved the basic premise of the story. During COVID-19 lockdown in India, Anand worked on developing the story further and narrated it to Roshan, who later confirmed for the film. In December 2020, it was reported that Siddharth Anand and Hrithik Roshan is going to reunite for a film after War (2019).
Fighter was officially announced on 10 January 2021, on the occasion of Hrithik Roshan’s birthday. The film is India’s first aerial action film. It is the first installment in its franchise.
The film is being made on a budget of ₹250 crore.
Siddharth Anand, the director of the film stated, “We have gone on a different level. The audience has not seen something like this before in India at all. It is something we have not attempted before. It’s just impossible to make a film like this at the cost which we are making it at. It’s not possible. Certain things we are exploring is really special. I can’t talk about it as I want the people to see it when we launch the teaser. Hopefully, it will just blow their mind.” The film is designed for a global audience, and would see the latest technology and filming techniques.
Ramon Chibb, an ex-army officer and writer, wrote the story with help of Siddharth Anand. Later, Anand and his team of writers developed a screenplay of the film in the lockdown under the supervision of Hrithik Roshan.
Akshay Oberoi said that the film has “much heavier” action scenes than Pathaan (2023).
In September 2022, Roshan started taking workshops and had continued 12-week simulator training and learned the nuances of playing a fighter jet pilot. His training was supervised by Kris Gethin, developing his abdominal muscles and losing weight.
In November, he visited air base and the Air Force training academy in Telangana, and also spent time with the pilots and cadets to observe their demeanour and understand the way that they function.
The real life Indian Air Force cadets have worked for the film. The cadets have flown in from Delhi’s IAF headquarters and Dundigal Air Force Academy near Hyderabad.
Principal photography began on 14 November 2022 in Assam. Roshan, Padukone and Kapoor joined in this schedule, that took place in Tezpur Air Force Station. The team returned to Mumbai on 28 November 2022 after wrapping 10–days first schedule in Assam.
For the second schedule team moved to Kashmir on 6 February 2023. Akshay Oberoi also joined this schedule. Team returned to Mumbai on 12 February, after filming at Pahalgam in Kashmir, where a song and few action sequences choreographed by Sunil Rodrigues were shot.
The third schedule was held at Dundigal Air Force Academy in Hyderabad, to shoot Roshan’s character, as an Air Force cadet undergoing training. The third schedule was wrapped in Hyderabad on 6 March.
On 19 March, the Roshan began filming in a Chembur bungalow for the fourth schedule, in Mumbai. In this schedule, Talat Aziz joined and some emotional scenes were taken. It was reported that the month-long schedule would end on 24 April. The team also shot 25-minute-long climax scenes with action sequences, which reportedly took 120 hours (5 days) to shoot.
Post-production for the film will begin by early-June 2023, once the film completes its shooting and will go on for six months as the film involves extensive computer graphics and visual effects. The VFX work of the film is done by DNEG.
Fighter is scheduled to release on 25 January 2024, coinciding with the Republic Day.
Earlier in January 2021, it was announced that the film was going to release on 30 September 2022. In October 2022, the release date was announced as 25 January 2024.
While writing the script, makers decided to make it a franchise. In May 2023, it was reported that the production of the sequel film titled Fighter 2, would begin after Anand had finished shooting Tiger vs Pathaan.