The third most popular film in the history of Polish cinema, with more than 27.6 million tickets sold in its native country by 1987, and 30.5 million sold in the Soviet Union.
There were 23,000 costumes and thousands of artifacts procured. A huge clumbrine cannon, an 18-pounder with serpent-shaped handles, was cast in Eblong's Zamech works. The cannons provided by Zamech could even all shoot. When the equipment was being transported to the film set in Belarus, as many as 37 freight wagons were needed.
"Potop" is the Polish word for deluge--a large downpouring of rain.
Large parts of the film were shot in the Soviet Union. Near Minsk they built Wodokty, Wolmontowicze and Lubicz and many of the battle scenes were filmed in Kiev, in the basin of the Dnieper River.
The duel between Kmicic and Col. Wolodyjowski is by most accounts one of the most accurate and realistic portrayals of the Polish school of saber. Every move during the duel was carefully choreographed.