In those days only Dev Anand dared to make a movie on true incidents, but now many films are made on true insidents. Dev Anand had started the trend before, some 20 years ago.
Political parties in India endlessly harassed Dev Anand to remove Fatima Sheikh from the film. They thought she was a Pakistani but she was from Gujurat, India. This was in 1991, when political parties had banned Zeba Bhaktiar, Mohshin Khan and were trying to ban Somy Ali due to some conflicts between India and Pakistan.
Based on the Syed Modi murder case.
Dev Anand was in the plane travelling. As he saw Fatima Sheikh as the air hostess of the flight, Dev was impressed with her and thought she was perfect to be the heroine for Sau Crore.
Based on 1988 murder case of Badminton player Syed Modi.