In 1990, when debutant filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi was trying to make "Ghayal", he had unsuccessfully approached several producers to back the project. Not many of them were keen to produce the Sunny Deol-starrer at that stage, till Sunny's father Dharmendra stepped in.

The film was finally produced by Dharmendra, and upon release on June 22, 1990, went on to become a superhit. Sunny was also jointly given a National Award (Special Jury Award), with Pankaj Kapur and South Indian actress Jayabharathi.