Development Kamna Chandra, one of the scriptwriters of the film, had gone to the United States to meet her daughters Tanuja and
Anupama (whom Vidhu Vinod Chopra would later marry) as they were studying there. Having watched Chopra's film
Parinda on video and being impressed with it, both of them asked their mother to write a story and approach him to direct it. Chandra had previously written
Prem Rog and
Chandni; both were love stories. She knew Chopra made "dark films", but decided to meet him. After returning, Chandra met Chopra at Natraj Studios. She made him listen to two or three of her ideas, among which he liked one and asked her to develop it. Chandra finished the script and dialogues by a year, until a day when Chopra himself called her and suggested that they should make a love story set in another era instead of the present time. This provoked Chandra, who could not sleep that night. However, she became excited in the next few days. Having grown up amidst the
Indian freedom struggle, she decided to place the story at that time. This formed the core plot for
1942: A Love Story.
Anil Kapoor was then approached, who was hesitant to do the film and suggested
Bobby Deol and Aamir Khan for the role. However, he was later convinced. To prepare himself for the role, Kapoor worked hard — he lost weight, cut short his hair, trimmed his moustache and worked on his costumes to create the character.
Shah Rukh Khan was under consideration for the role later portrayed by
Raghuvir Yadav. He did not feature as he had already been playing lead roles.
Ashwini Bhave was also one of those who had auditioned for the role. She was rejected on the spot.
Nana Patekar, who had previously worked with Chopra in
Parinda (1989), was selected to portray Raghuvir Pathak. But he insisted on being cast as Shubankar, which caused a rift between him and Chopra.
Anupam Kher was later signed for the role.
Mithun Chakraborty had also been briefly considered for the role of Shubankar, when Shroff developed date issues. The distributors, however, somehow made Chopra retain Shroff in the film. Since the production started in the early 90s, it was speculated that
Sanjay Kapoor was to replace his brother Anil as the latter's film
Lamhe (1991) had not been successful. Nevertheless, it did not materialize.
Filming Principal photography for the film, being handled by
Binod Pradhan, took place mainly at various locations in
Himachal Pradesh, including the district
Chamba,
Dalhousie,
Khajjiar and the
Kalatop Sanctuary to depict pre-independence India. An artificial set resembling Dalhousie was created in the
Mumbai Filmcity, since it was an expensive proposition to take the entire cast and crew there. It was erected by art director
Nitin Desai at a cost of . According to Desai, many people told Chopra not to hire him, as he was a newcomer; yet Chopra had full faith in him
. == Music ==