Merry Christmas (2023 film)

In early January 2021, Katrina Kaif signed her next film in the lead female role alongside Vijay Sethupathi, with the direction by Sriram Raghavan.[2] The film's launch was reported to be made in April, however, due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and Katrina testing postive for COVID-19, the launch was delayed.[3] On 25 December, the film was officially announced with Ramesh Turani and Sanjay Routray as producers.[4]

Producer Ramesh, while speaking to ETimes, said "Vijay suited the role perfectly so we approached him for this film." and "Katrina was always our only choice for the role right from the beginning."[5] In early March 2022, Sanjay Kapoor was announced to play an important role in the film.[6] In April, Raadhika Sarathkumar was also announced being a part of the cast. Vinay Pathak was announced being a part of the cast in August. He was further more said to be playing a key role in the film.[7] In July 2023, Ashwini Kalsekar and Radhika Apte were announced playing a cameo appearance in the film.[8]

The principal photography began on 25 December 2021, with the first schedule in Mumbai.[9] The shooting was put on hold in early January 2022, due to rising of COVID-cases.[10] The shooting started again in early February in Filmistan Studio in Mumbai.[11] Sanjay started filming his portions in March.[6] Katrina continued filming her portions on 11 March.[12] The first schedule concluded in March.

The second schedule commenced on 19 March in a studio in Chitrakoot. The schedule was said to be 45-days long.[13] Raadhika started filming her portions in April.[14] Due to an fire incident in the district in August, the schedule was moved to a studio in Vrindavan.[7] The second schedule finished in November.

In the third schedule, which commenced in November in Mumbai, pictures of Katrina, Sethupathi and Kapoor from the sets were released on social media's by paparazzi's.[15] Further more pictures were taken few more days after the former.[16] The principal photography wrapped in January 2023, with an official confirmation on Sethupathi's birthday (16 January).[17]

Raghavan started the post-production works in mid November 2022, as the filming was in the last schedule.[16] Raghavan, in May 2023, revealed that the film is a billingual film, meaning that it was simultaneously shot in Hindi and Tamil languages.[18] The film marks Raghavan's and Kaif’s debut in Tamil cinema. Each version will reportedly have a different set of co-actors.[19] On 17 July, the release date (15 December 2023) was announced.[8]

Merry Christmas is scheduled for a theatrical release on 8 December 2023 in Hindi and Tamil.[22] It was initially scheduled for release on 23 December 2022, however, to avoid a box office clash with Cirkus, the film was postponed.[23]

The streaming rights were bought by Netflix for ₹60 crore (US$7.5 million).[24]