Besides Victor Tsoy and Mayk Naumenko, several characters known only by their first names or nicknames are stand-ins for real musicians, popular in the Soviet rock scene. In 1980's Leonid (Filipp Avdeyev) represents Aleksey Rybin of 'Kino' fame. 'Punk' is a stand-in for Andrey 'Svin' Panov (Aleksandr Gorchilin), leader of 'Avtomaticheskiye ydovletvoreniye' punk band and one of the pioneers of punk genre in USSR. Bob (Nikita Efremov) is Boris Grebenshchikov, leader of rock band 'Akvarium' and Artyom (Andrey Khodorchenkov) represents Artemiy Troitskiy, pioneer of rock music in USSR and organizer of multiple rock concerts and festivals.
The director was put in house arrest in August 2017 but was able to compete the editing of his film within the walls of his home.
Korean actor Teo Yoo already knew about Viktor Tsoi before he received an offer to play him as he had studied stories about Koreans who had become famous in other countries. He learned all his lines in Russian with the help of a tutor but was dubbed by Denis Klyaver. The songs were performed by Petr Pogodaev.
Real guitars of the 1980s, identical to Mike Naumenko's, were used. Thanks to guitar master Pavel Bashmakov, an authentic but professional sound was achieved.
The film was sharply criticized by some prominent persons of the 1980's Leningrad Rock scene, Boris Grebenshchikov, Alexei Rybin and Andrei Tropillo.
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