Vakeel Saab

• Vakeel Saab is a remake of the 2016 Hindi-language film Pink directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury.
• In November 2019, Venu Sriram started working on the remake of Pink (2016) after his project with Allu Arjun titled Icon was put on hold.
• Pawan Kalyan accepted the script narrated by Sriram, marking Kalyan’s return to cinema after a sabbatical owing to his political campaign in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.
• During the pre-production works, the tentative titles Maguva, Lawyer Saab, and Vakeel Saab, were under consideration for the film before the latter was finalised official title in March 2020.
• In a September 2020 interview, director Venu Sriram announced that the film cannot be made as a commercial entertainer due to the social issues involved in the Hindi counterpart, but staying true to the original script, the team had made some changes suiting Pawan Kalyan’s body language.
• While Pawan Kalyan was reported to essay Amitabh Bachchan’s role while Anjali, Nivetha Thomas, and Ananya Nagalla are cast in pivotal roles.
• The team decided to approach Shruti Haasan and Ileana D’Cruz to appear for a cameo role, essaying the character of Kalyan’s wife in the film. While Haasan initially refuted being a part of the film’s cast, she later confirmed her presence in July 2020, despite not revealing her role in the film.
• Principal photography of the film was commenced on 20 January 2020 in Hyderabad. At the end of February 2020, shooting of the film took place at Annapurna Studios with intense scenes being shot on Pawan Kalyan and Prakash Raj.
• The film’s production was halted for six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and on 22 September 2020, the shooting of the film resumed in Hyderabad, following the relaxation of the COVID-19 lockdown in India with the team following the safety guidelines imposed by the government to control COVID-19 spread. Major scenes without featuring Kalyan were shot during this schedule.
• Kalyan completed his portions of filming on 29 December 2020, whereas the team shot few sequences; the shooting of the film completed on 9 January 2021.
• Pawan Kalyan started dubbing for his portions for the film in March 2021 and completed within five days
• The pre-release event of this film was scheduled to take place on 3 April 2021 at Yousufguda Police Grounds in Hyderabad. However, as the authorities denied permission for the promotional activities of the film citing surge in COVID-19 cases, the team decided to shift the venue at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad on 4 April.
• Vakeel Saab was scheduled to be released on 15 May 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dil Raju refuted the rumours of a direct release through over-the-top media service (OTT) and stated that the film will be theatrical. In January 2021, a new release date of 9 April 2021 was announced.
• The benefit shows for the opening day release were canceled due to surge in COVID-19 cases. However, Dil Raju announced that the film will get benefit shows in select theatres across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The advance bookings for the film opened up on 6 April 2021, and saw a tremendous response from trade analysts. Grossing over ₹137 crore, Vakeel Saab became the second highest-grossing Telugu film of the year.
• Phars Film bought the distribution rights for the United States which planned to screen in more than 700 theatres on 8 April, a day before the Indian release. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh announced through Twitter, stating that Panorama Studios acquired the distribution rights for the film in North Indian theatres. Vakeel Saab will also be screened at IMAX Melbourne, the world’s largest cinema theatre.
• The film’s digital rights were sold to Amazon Prime Video and Aha and the satellite rights were sold to Zee Telugu respectively. The film however was streamed 21 days later through Amazon Prime Video on 30 April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• The film was dubbed and released in Malayalam with the same name and in Kannada as Advocate. It was also dubbed in Tamil as Vakeel Sir despite the existence of a Tamil remake.

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