The character Anand made Rajesh Khanna an immortal. He got his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for this character. This role was his favourite character from 180 films he did. He made full use of his strong director-backed role. For this role, he accepted a meagre sum of Rs 7 Lakh.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the director got the idea of making the film when his friend and Indian producer Raj Kapoor was suffering from an illness and everyone thought he would die. Mukherjee’s fear of losing his friend inspired him to pen Anand.
Kishore Kumar was the original choice for the role of Anand, he was ready to do this role too but when on the day he went to sign him, Kishore Kumar’s watchman didn’t allow Hrishikesh Mukharjee in. Kishore Kumar had apparently asked his watchman to not allow a Bengali man inside and he mistook Mukherjee to be that man. This made Hrishikesh Da angry and decided to drop the idea of taking Kishore for this role.
Then he thought of taking Uttam Kumar for this role but he refused the film because the shooting dates clashed with his commitments to Bengali cinema., then he approached Shashi Kapoor for this role, he too was reluctant to accept this role because during those he wanted to consolidate himself as a romantic hero after the success of Jab Jab Phool Khile.
The film and its script was ready but its cast could not be finalized, in the meantime, Hrishikesh Mukharjee was busy with the films like Aashirwad and Satyakam. In 1969 Rajesh Khanna's Aradhana got released, with this film he became a superstar and was the most sought after hero. Every film of his was making Jubilee, producers were after him to sign their film but it was Rajesh Khanna, who wanted to do the role of Anand. He came to know about this role from Gulzar who was the co-writer of this film.
Rajesh Khanna one day went to Hrishikesh Da, asked him to give this role and complete the film but Hrishi Da was hesitant to work with him because the film was a low budget film, Rajesh Khanna was a Super Star, the film can not afford his price for which Rajesh Khanna said that he is ready to accept whatever they pay. Hrishi Da was aware that Rajesh Khanna had a habit of coming late on sets, so he asked him to report on time and give him his dates as per his requirement. Rajesh Khanna accepted all the terms and conditions to do this film.
