considered Kishore Kumar and Mehmood (as Babu Moshai) in lead roles. One of the producers, N. C. Sippy, had earlier served as Mehmood's production manager. Mukherjee was asked to meet Kishore Kumar to discuss the project. However, when he went to Kishore Kumar's residence, he was driven away by the gatekeeper due to a misunderstanding. Kishore Kumar (himself a Bengali) was involved in a financial dispute with a Bengali event manager over a stage show. He had instructed his gatekeeper to drive away this "Bengali", if he ever visited the house. The gatekeeper mistook Hrishikesh Mukherjee to be this "Bengali", and refused him entry. The incident hurt Mukherjee and he decided not to work with Kumar. Consequently, Mehmood had to leave the film as well. According to Dharmendra, he was also considered for the lead role before it went to Rajesh Khanna. As a playback singer, Kishore Kumar had become the preferred voice for Khanna by this time, but Anand did not have any song by him. Hrishikesh Mukherjee shot the film in 28 days. The screenplay of Anand was written by Gulzar (who also wrote the dialogue and the lyrics of a few songs), Bimal Dutt, D.N. Mukherjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Later, Anand was remade in Malayalam, with the name Chitrashalabham. Music The musical score and songs were composed by Salil Chowdhary. The lyrics were written by Gulzar and Yogesh. Gulzar wrote the poem "Maut Tu Ek Kavita Hai", which is narrated by Amitabh Bachchan. Before confirming Chowdhary for songs, Mukherjee approached Lata Mangeshkar to get the songs composed, as she had already worked as a music director in Marathi films under the pseudonym of "Anandghan". She, however, politely refused the offer and decided to sing the songs in the film rather than composing them. Awards Home media Numerous DVD editions entered the market by companies like "Digital Entertainment Inc.", Shemaroo Entertainment and "Eagle Home Video". These were released as non-restored, non-re-mastered editions and bare-bones, devoid of supplementary features. Eagle Home Video came out with a restored edition on Blu-ray, preserving the original aspect ratio in 4:3 pillar box and a DTS Master Audio (HD) in 2.0. The restoration took place in Shemaroo Studios. Impact Till the time of the release of Anand, the star of the film, Amitabh Bachchan, was not recognized in public. Sharing the incident on Twitter, a fan reminded him of how he got recognition