 Initially, Chitralekha Film Co-operative, the producer of the film had trouble distributing the film, so they decided to do it by themselves.Ritwik Ghatak's 1965 film Subarnarekha was an influence to Gopalakrishnan.The Bengali film dealt with post Partition and tells the story of a Hindu Brahmin refugee Ishwar who raises his sister Sita and Abhiram, the son of a low-caste woman from a refugee camp.