Anil made one thing clear to Vinod. That he would have to pay the same price to Jackie that he was paying Anil. Anil knew Jackie was going thru a rough phase and did not want anyone to take of advantage of the fact . But somewhere during the making of Parinda Vinod convinced Jackie to reduce his price to less than half. Anil was not aware of this .Anil got to know about this when Vinod told Anil since Jackie reduced his price, he should do the same. But Anil stuck to his guns. Tezaab was a super hit and Anil knew Vinod was getting a good price for Parinda. So Anil refused to make any compromises.
The film broke many taboos at the time of its release. It was shot in a realistic style, only two songs were recorded and used in the film, and the ending was kept open purposefully. This influenced a whole generation of filmmakers - most notably Ram Gopal Varma and Mahesh Manjrekar, who made two acclaimed underworld films in their own right - Satya (1998) and Vaastav: The Reality (1999).
Vidhu Vinod wanted Amitabh Bachchan for the role of Kishen. He declined it for unknown reasons. Vidhu narrated the subject to Anil while he was shooting for Karma. He loved it and signed right away .Vidhu then attempted to sign Naseeruddin for Kishen's role but due to problems he had with Vidhu, he declined it. The next few months Vinod Khanna, Suresh Oberoi, Ajit Vachchani, even Nana Patekar were all considered for Kishen's role. Anil told Vidhu that Nana Patekar would not look like his brother .Anil suggested that Jackie Shroff be signed. But for some reason Jackie was just not interested. Jackie was not even interested in meeting Vidhu. When the casting got very difficult, Vidhu toyed with Anil playing the elder brother with Kumar Gaurav playing the younger brother .But Vidhu felt Kumar Gaurav might not suit the angry part of the role. Anil finally convinced Jackie to do the film. Jackie agreed after listening to a song that was to be picturised on Anil.
In an interview, the film's cinematographer Binod Pradhan revealed that his main inspiration for the visuals of Parinda was Gordon Willis cinematography in The Godfather (1972). He had put diffusion materials, like a piece of white cloth, or tracing paper in front of the light to make it softer and more natural.
Due to star dates and the availability of locations, the movie was shot over a period of three years.