It stars Anil Kapoor, Manisha Koirala and Jackie Shroff, with Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa, Pran and Brian Glover.

The film revolves around lovers Naren (Kapoor) and Rajjo (Koirala), who come from contrasting family backgrounds and depicts how their relationship is threatened owing to the outbreak of the Indian revolutionary movement.

In this atmosphere, Narendra Singh (Anil Kapoor) falls in love with Rajeshwari Pathak (Manisha Koirala).

Rajeshwari's father, Raghuveer Pathak (Anupam Kher) is a revolutionary fighting against British rule, as he holds a grudge against Douglas for murdering his son.

However, Hari tricks Narendra into revealing Raghuveer's secret location and leaks the information to Major Bisht (Danny Dengzongpa) and the British authorities.

To prove his point, Narendra attempts to murder Douglas in front of the city but is caught in the act after shooting down a few soldiers.

Douglas then orders his troops to fire at the town square, resulting in the deaths of several citizens, including Chanda.

The film ends with Narendra, Rajeshwari, Shubhankar, Bisht, and the surviving citizens hoisting and saluting the Indian flag.

Kamna Chandra, one of the script writers 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 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.

For instance, some (extra) houses built at the film's set (which were first disapproved of by Vidhu Vinod Chopra due to the limited budget) were paid for by Shroff.

[5] Chopra had crafted the role of Rajeshwari Pathak in accordance to Madhuri Dixit, with lyricist Javed Akhtar also keeping her in mind while penning the lyrics for "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To".

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.

[9] 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.

[9] 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.

Kumar Sanu won his 5th consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha" and Kavita Krishnamurthy won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for "Pyar Hua Chupke Se", the first of her hat-trick feat.

According to Box Office India, with around 35,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack was the year's third highest-selling album, behind Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!