Certain techniques are slowly changed within the film to mark the passing of time and the growth of Guru as an individual: - When Guru is a young man in Turkey, the camera is handheld and in perpetual motion, giving Guru and that period of his life a racy, edgy feel. As he ages, the camera movements become smoother and towards the end of the film the camera is almost stationary. - The editing closely follows the above concept: the young Guru is shown in quick cuts and as Guru grows older the editing is smoother and becomes less frequent. - Lighting also changes with the times In Turkey, direct and specular lights were initially used to capture the aura of a foreign land, thus producing a sepia-yellow phase. Then the lighting changed to the more directionless soft light seen in the early and middle 1960s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, tube lights came into style, thus producing a dramatic cyan-green light needed for the climax.
Inspired by the life and works of industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani.
A.R. Rahman dedicated the song "Tere Bina" to the memory of the renowned qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
On 14 January 2007, two days after the film was released, the engagement of its lead actors, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, was announced. They were married on 20 April 2007.
Anurag Kashyap stated "I started working in Guru. We did something, locked the thing. When Mani went to shoot in Turkey, he decided to change a few things. I was not there. I had to go to US. I couldn't have postponed my trip, so I decided to back out.
I think Mani has done a great job with the film. But there could have been more. And that's a creative difference. He thinks its right and it is his prerogative.I felt that there should have been more of 'Guru's life rather than the love story while Mani felt there should be more of love story than Guru's life. So, these are two different point of views. It's a discussion that we will have."