After f.c.mehra and umesh mehra co-production alibaba aur 40 chor with soviet union, sohni mahiwal was made, a special role was created for zeenat aman in sohni mahiwal as the russians like her in alibaba aur 40 chor so they insisted that she should be in this film, this is the major earliest film of music composer annu malik and sunny seol seconds second release after Betaab.
Mazhar Khan and Zeenat Aman were fell in love with each other during the making of the film.
The story of #SohniMahiwal has been brought on silver screen a couple of times. Once it's cine adaptation was released in 1946, the other in 1984, but do you know that a Punjabi version too went on floors based on this very folklore with stellar cast of the movie included #RajeshKhanna & #NeetuSingh? In mid-70s filmmaker #BRChopra was directing this Punjabi movie and since Rajesh Khanna was already working with him on another Hindi film 'Karm', he said yes to the offer. Similarly, as soon as Neetu Singh was approached, she too was happy to do an author-backed role. Thus, with cast all sorted, film's mahurat was done in presence of then CM of Chandigarh, Gyani Zail Singh as chief guest. A few scenes were shot near Sukhna Lake. Fans would come in huge numbers to get glimpse of Rajesh Khanna, Neetu Singh & Dimple Kapadia. The entire cast and crew stayed in the city for a week and then went back to Mumbai.Things were going fine. But after coming back to Mumbai, BR Chopra got busy with KARM. And irrespective of all the efforts, KARM couldn't enjoy a good run at box office. The buzz has it that due to debacle of 'Karm' , film Sohni Mahiwal got shelved & a star studded big Punjabi film could not go beyond mahurat, a few scenes and song recordings.
Rajesh Khanna starred in B.R Films shelved film "Sohni Mahiwal" (1977).Starring Rajesh Khanna, Neetu Singh. Music by Khayyam. Directed by BR Chopra. The mahurat was held in Chandigardh. It was to be made in Hindi and Punjabi. After it was shelved, a year later H.S.Rawail launched Sohni Mahiwal with Jeetendra and Sulakshna Pandit. That film also got shelved
Kumar Gaurav was the first choice for the role. Butwhen Rajendra Kumar quoted 15 lakhs for Gaurav's price, the producers backed out.