Nishitani noted that while many comparisons were made to the Indian character in the martial arts film Master of the Flying Guillotine, he had not heard of the movie prior to working on the game and instead the concept was based on a technique from manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

He add that originally the attack was only supposed to travel a short distance, however as development progressed Hayashi increased the length of the limbs more and more.

[1] Nishitani noted this was due to each developer wanting to make their character different than the others, and while he originally intended to shorten the length he was happy to have made it work in a balanced manner.

[8] The character was finally named "Dhalsim", which according to Street Fighter II game director Akira Nishitani in an interview with Gamest magazine, comes from "Dhalsima", a martial artist from the India-Pakistani area.

[10] Akiman noted that sprite designers often added their own alterations to the concepts,[11] and voiced approval for the dry, dehydrated appearance Hayashi brought to the character.

[13] In his Arcade Mode ending in Street Fighter II, Dhalsim wins the tournament and returns home on his elephant Kodal.

In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, it was changed to a more realistic style, with Dhalsim's wife Sally (named Sari in the UDON comic book series) added alongside Datta.

In his storyline in the Alpha games (which are set prior to the events of Street Fighter II), Dhalsim attempts to hunt down an "evil spirit" (M. Bison) that is threatening the world.

His super move in the Street Fighter EX, Cross Over and later Alpha Series was the Yoga Inferno, which was a multi-hitting flamethrower-style attack that could be directed manually.

Later on he is given an invitation to M. Bison's "Street Fighter II" global fighting tournament, wherein he defeats Adon in the preliminaries with ease.

The film depicts Dhalsim as an Indian scientist and doctor whose science was originally supposed to promote peace, only for Bison to capture him and force him to aid him in his evil ambitions, one of which is the "supersoldier" experiment meant to turn Carlos Blanka into a mutated beast.

In the 1993 anime Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Episode 37 there is a background character that resembles Dhalsim and does the trademark Yoga Fire move.

[15] Todd Ciolek of Topless Robot called him the most outlandish stereotype of Street Fighter II's cast, feeling the character was a "joke at the expense of Indian culture" and despite Capcom's claims to the contrary felt it borrowed heavily from Master of the Flying Guillotine.

[17] Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek also voiced disdain for Dhalsim in a different way, feeling that while the concept had merit, he was a "bargain basement wise man who never really does much with it" outside of a select few moments in related Street Fighter media.