Operation 'Y' & Other Shurik's Adventures

The casting started on 1 June 1964. Searching for the protagonist proved to be the most difficult. Leonid Gaidai looked for someone like himself and over 100 actors auditioned, including Oleg Vidov, Vsevolod Abdulov, Vitali Solomin, Evgeny Petrosyan, Sergey Nikonenko, Evgeniy Zharikov, Gennadi Korolkov, Ivan Bortnik, Valeriy Nosik (who appears in the movie in a smaller role), Aleksandr Zbruev and Andrey Mironov was in talks. The art committee recommended Nosik although Leonid Gaidai himself had doubts. After incidentally seeing a picture of Aleksandr Demyanenko, Gaidai left for Leningrad on 11 July for personal talks that proved to be successful. Demyanenko later said, "I realized the film was bound to be a success as soon as I read the script of 'Operatsiya Y'. No films like that were made in the USSR at the time."

Segment "Obsession" was also edited into and black-and-white short film Operation 'Y' & Other Shurik's Adventures (1965), which was submitted to several film festivals and eventually won a Silver Dragon at Krakow Film Festival.

Featured in The Other Day 1961-2003: Our Era: Namedni 1965 (1997)