 In a 2008 interview, film director, Subhash Ghai admitted that film was ahead of its time, and was thus panned by critics of the times, and "flopped" at the box office, it was only years later that it started being considered a classic and even remade several times over.The film is also one of the finest films of Subhash Ghai, notable for picturisation of songs like "Ek Hasina Thi" on stage as well as "Dard-E-Dil", and set the standard for his future films, as most of them became known for his dramatic flair, and above all their music score.However, the director Subhash Ghai admitted that "Karz" was partly inspired by the 1975 American film "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud", mixed in with Indian beliefs on reincarnation.