The story of this movie is actually based on the real life incidents of Hindi Cinema's top two singing stars, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.
Sai Paranjpe wanted two top heroines to play the two roles. Shabana chose the more challenging role of the younger sister. Rekha and Moushumi refused to play elder sister to Shabana. Sai would have approached Hema malini but Shabana was unwilling to act with Hema at that time - they had both vied for the role of the queen of Jhansi in an international film and neither had succeeded. This had soured relations between them. Sai settled for Aruna Irani, who was a top character artiste at that time.
When Kavita Krishnamurthy sang in the film, every one though Shabana Azmi was singing in her own voice. She had to convince people it was not her.
Zakir Hussain played the character that was based on the legend Rahul Dev Burman. Zakir's body language, happy go lucky nature, genius composing abilities, being loved by fellow artists, unique styling - and even his shirts were based on Rahul Dev Burman.
The film did not have a theatrical release in British Columbia, Canada.