' AAKHREE RAASTA ' is still considered as Amitabh Bachchan's one of the finest performances to date .
The film was earlier titled Qaid Ki Diary.
On the DVD version of Aakhri Raasta, 'Sridevi's voice is actually dubbed by Rekha. This is not the only time this has happened. Soundarya's voice was dubbed by Rekha in Amitabh Bachchan's Sooryavansham (1999).
Producer Poorna Chandra had been asking south Indian film director K Bhagyaraj (whose several south Indian films had been remade into Hindi films) to direct a Hindi film, after the producer persisting several times, K Bhagyaraj gave an outline first. Poorna Chandra liked the story so much that he wanted him to write a screenplay and give it to him. Initially the story was made into a Tamil film by Bharatiraja based on this script, Oru Kaithiyin Diary (1984) with Kamal Hassan. Poorna Chandra was adamant of making the Hindi version with Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh was brought to Chennai for the story narration, he liked it. But was a little doubtful about the directors ability to direct an action film, as he had done only family oriented subjects, after some discussion Amitabh agreed and signed on.
Anupam Kher was approached for the main villain's role. He declined it as he saw the original film and thought the friends role was more powerful. Sadashiv Amrapurkar was then signed for the villain's role.