The movie was originally entitled "Kabutarkhana" and 'Naseeruddin Shah' and 'Anil Kapoor' were signed. Nana Patekar stepped in Shah's shoes subsequently.


Due to star dates and the availability of locations, the movie was shot over a period of three years.


Underworld slang in Bombay is borrowed from the film's dialog.


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 realistic underworld films- Satya (1998) and Vaastav (1999).


Vidhu Vinod Chopra took his stars' dates for rehearsals before shooting began - an unheard of occurrence. He wanted them to start living their characters.


Kishan's role was not authored for Jackie Shroff, it was authored for Amitabh Bachchan.