Although the real-life 'Driss' was a young Algerian man called Abdel, directors Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache changed the character's nationality to Senegalese, as they had enjoyed working with Omar Sy on Tellement proches (2009), and really wanted him to play the part. Sy also had the experience of living in the impoverished French suburbs, just like Driss.
In 2012, Éric Toledano stated that he had received more than 3,000 thank-you messages from wheelchair users all over the world.
With 8.8 million moviegoers, this was the most successful film in Germany in 2012 (beating the likes of 007 Skyfall (2012), L'ère de glace 4: La dérive des continents (2012) and La saga Twilight: révélation partie 2 (2012). It is the most successful French film in German cinema history.
As of 2013, this movie was the most successful movie in French language of all time in Germany (8.9M tickets), Spain (2.5M tickets), Italy (2.5M), Netherlands (1.2M), Switzerland, Austria, Israel, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, South Korea (1.7M tickets), Mexico (1.6M), Brazil (1M), Colombia (500000 tickets), Venezuela, Peru, Hong Kong, New-Zealand and Norway.
The nervousness and slight pacing of Driss in the first scene where he meets Philippe was intentional - the director wanted to contrast Driss' mobility to Philippe's immobility.