In Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's first scene, she is seen walking across the Kutch desert. She did this barefoot and in 35 degree weather. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali later expressed his great gratitude and respect for her having done so.
At a screening of König der Herzen (1996), Aishwarya Rai Bachchan came up to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, shook his hand and told him that she loved his work in Khamoshi: The Musical (1996). Sanjay Leela Bhansali has said that her eyes were like fire, and he had been looking for a girl to play Nandini. At that moment he said to himself, "Yehi to hai meri Nandini (She is my Nandini)."
The bridge and many of the scenic locations shown in the movie were filmed in Budapest, Hungary, but Bhansali felt that names like Budapest or Hungary would not connect with the masses of India, so the Hungarian scenes were shown as Italian in the film.
Bhansali and art director Nitin Desai toured Gujarat, Bhuj and Kutch to get the perfect locales and research the lifestyles and culture extensively. Due to this research, the sets designed were so good that Desai claims he got a letter from a filmmaking team in Canada asking which part of the country the location was in.
This movie also resulted in a real life romance between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai, the most publicized love affair in the history of Indian Cinema.