Sridevi and Kamal Hassan were a popular pair in South industry and worked in many films.Sadma remains their only Hindi film together.
AR Rahman was Ilaiyaraaja's assistant in the film.
Shahrukh Khan stated "Kamal Haasan in Appu Raja. I loved him in that. I saw him, I met him, I asked if I could touch him. I've borrowed the physical aspect of acting from Kamal Haasan. You know if I have to stumble or fall, I do it like him. And I can never forget the way he ran in Sadma. I used that in Darr, when I'm running and bang into a pole that was straight out of Sadma".
Anil Kapoor was shooting for a Kannada film and took Gulshan Grover along with him. Balu Mahendra was the camera man of the film. He asked Anil Kapoor to ask Gulshan Grover if he would be interested in a villain's role in Sadma. Gulshan immediately agreed. The role was originally suppose to be done by Stevie Ray and Sharat Saxena in the Hindi version.
Film critic Baradwaj Rangan noted "Even though Kamal, back then, claimed to have been influenced by Marlon Brando style of acting, his physical performances usually reminds of the French actor Marcel Marceau. Similar to Marceau, Kamal is a very physical actor who likes to move around within the frame and interact with the props, and among dozens of examples is the scene in Moondram Pirai where he burns the food and gets angry at Sridevi. He uses his environment and props to express his anger without much dialogue".