This was the last film produced by Guru Dutt. It opened with an image of him and the caption "Guru Dutt's last offering". It went on the floors in 1963-1964 with the title "Production No. 9". Dutt was to play the film's lead role and had even started shooting for it. However, he died in 1964 when the film was still in production. Dutt was replaced by Dharmendra after leading actors like Dev Anand and Sunil Dutt refused to step in. His scenes were discarded and reshot with Dharmendra. Before he died, Guru Dutt made his mark on the film by picking its songs working with music director O.P. Nayyar. An effort was made to retain the scenes that Dutt supervised but was not a part of. According to Shyam Kapoor, Guru Dutt's assistant, even though Shahid Latif was credited as the director, the film was completed by Dutt's brother Atmaram and writer Abrar Alvi.[1][MR4]
Guru Dutt first approached S.D. Burman to compose the music for this film. According to Raju Bharatan, Dutt did not like the title tune composed by Burman and opted for O.P. Nayyar instead. S.D. Burman later used this tune for "Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechara" ("Jewel Thief", 1967). It is alternatively reported that Dutt opted for Nayyar due to Burman's prolonged illness.[2][3][MR4]
The film's story was an adaptation of a New Theatres bilingual film, titled "The President (Badi Bahen)" (1937) in Hindi and "Didi" (1937) in Bengali. The cotton mill in the original film was replaced with a newspaper publication in this film.[4][5]
Song
Suno Suno Miss Chatterjee - This was a duet featuring the voices of Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle but the film's music records credited only Rafi.
