He had worked earlier with Singh on three films: Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Bombay Talkies (2013) and Ugly (2014).[3] Kashyap felt that the script was very similar to Rocky (1976) and asked Singh to show him a "Rocky" in India.[4] However, Kashyap found one sequence in the script where the protagonist tries to get a government job interesting.[6] He said he would make the film on two conditions: he would change the script a little, and Singh needed "to look like a boxer".[3]