The film "Anand" (1971) was originally supposed to star Kishore and Mehmood Ali in the lead. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the director of the film, was asked to meet Kishore to discuss the project. However, when he went to Kumar's house he was driven away by the gatekeeper due to a misunderstanding. Kumarhimself a Bengalihad not been paid for a stage show organized by another Bengali man and had instructed his gatekeeper to drive away this "Bengali", if he ever visited the house. Consequently, Mehmood had to leave the film as well, and new actors (Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan) were signed up for the film.