In an interview with "The Times of India", Karan Johar explained that he had the intention of remaking the original "Agneepath" ever since the film released 22 years ago, because according to him, the failure of the film broke his father's heart. The idea of the remake materialised on the sets of Johar's film "My Name Is Khan" in which Karan Malhotra was an associate director. Johar told Malhotra his desire to remake the original film and asked him to revisit it again, to which he agreed immediately.