How GTA 5’s map made its way into a 2017 Indian action movie

Back in 2017, keen-eyed fans spotted something bizarre in the Tamil-language action movie Singam 3: a background shot included none other than GTA 5's legendary map. Although the incident went quietly round gaming circles back then, it never received major coverage.

With curiosity about such pop culture interfaces increasing in 2025, it's well worth revisiting how a fragment of Los Santos found its way onto the cinema screen.

The GTA 5 map cameo in an Indian movie

In one of Singam 3’s scenes set inside a tactical command room, a digital map appears on a wall monitor. Upon closer inspection, fans recognized the layout, not of an Indian city, but of Los Santos, the fictional city from Rockstar Games’ GTA 5. The hilly terrain, road layout, and design were clearly lifted straight from the game.While not widely reported, gaming forums and YouTube comments at the time did talk about the unusual decision. Several thought the special effects team of the movie could have utilized publicly available game resources or just did not anticipate such niceties being examined so closely. For GTA 5 fans, however, the visual was remarkable right off the bat.

Why it happened and why it still matters

Although no official word came from the filmmakers, the map's appearance was probably due to the use of placeholder images during post-production.

Such a creative liberty is not uncommon, particularly when time and money constraints are tight. Game maps, because they are so rich in design and ubiquitous online, sometimes find their way into films without going unnoticed by mainstream moviegoers.What makes this occasion significant in 2025 is the way it illustrates the increasing overlap between games and film. The unintended incorporation of a top video game asset in a broad Indian movie illustrates the extent to which video game imagery has become part of digital society.

It also points towards the keen eye for observation by gaming communities, who tend to notice such confluences much before they become generic trivia.

The surprise cameo of GTA 5's map in Singam 3 could have been an accident during production, but it is an interesting indicator of how gaming culture seeps into film. Years on, it is a brief but interesting moment that still makes people wonder, and reminds us all that no detail is too minor to spot for fans.Also Read: 4 key storytelling lessons GTA 6 can learn from Red Dead Redemption 2