In this film produced by Rajshri Productions, Sooraj Barjatya was Mahesh Bhatt's assistant director.[MR12]
Mahesh Bhatt had selected a complete unknown for the lead role in this film - Anupam Kher. However, on the producers' suggestion, he decided to get Sanjeev Kumar onboard instead. When Anupam Kher learnt about this, he visited Mahesh Bhatt and gave him a piece of his mind. It was then that Mahesh Bhatt realised how perfect a fit Anupam Kher would be for the film and convinced the producers to go with his original choice.[MR12]
Mahesh Bhatt had had a hard time finding distributors for his previous film "Arth" (1982). However, when Shabana Azmi had won the National Film Award for Best Actress for it, the Barjatyas bought the film's distribution rights. It was the success of "Arth" (1982) that paved the path for the Barjatyas' Rajshri Productions producing this film by Mahesh Bhatt.[1][2]
Anupam Kher appears to have debuted prior to this film - "Apman" (1982) may have been his first Hindi film. However, it was his award-winning performance in this film that made him famous. He was only 28 years old when he played the role of an elderly man in this film.[3]
Mahesh Bhatt's story for this film was inspired by two real-life incidents. One involved the death of the son of his spiritual guru, U.G. Krishnamurti, and the other was the death of the young son of an elderly Maharashtrian couple.[4]