Director Sergei Bodrov and Production Designer Dashi Namdakov visited Mongolia's chief shaman in the capital city of Ulan Bator, so that they could ask permission to film a movie about Genghis Khan's life. The shaman told them that of all the people who have talked about making such a film, they were the only ones to ask his permission.
The film took 14 months to shoot, and had a crew of 400 people (300 Chinese and 100 Russians), and over 1500 extras. Because there were so many different nationalities working on the film (Germans, Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhstanis), a team of over 30 interpreters were on set at all times.
Originally, 'Mongol' was the first part of a projected trilogy, but after the difficulty making this film, director Sergei Bodrov decided not to make the sequels. Several months after shooting wrapped, however, he changed his mind again and decided to conflate his scripts for parts 2 and 3, and just do the one sequel, entitled 'The Great Kahn'. It was originally scheduled to be released in late 2010, but the project was held back for several months. In Noevember 2010 however, it was announced that all work on the film had ceased, and was unlikely to resume. In July 2013, during a visit to the annual Naadam Festival in Ulan Bator, Bodrov told the press that the production of the sequel had started again.
The film was shot primarily in Kazakhstan and China. In China, the primary location was Inner Mongolia, a Mongolian province within China's borders which has more Mongolians living in it than Mongolia itself.
Prior to appearing in the film as Börte, actress Khulan Chuluun was studying to be a journalist, and had never acted before. Director Sergei Bodrov had sent casting director Gulshat Omarova to Mongolia to look for actresses for the role, but she was unable to find any. Disappointed with her failure, she went to the Chinese Embassy to renew her Visa so as to travel back to China. Whilst she was in the embassy, she saw Khulan by sheer accident, and approached her to ask about playing the role.