3 Deewarein - Production

Production

During the film's premiere at the Kolkata Film Festival, writer-director Nagesh Kukunoor explained his thoughts behind the film's story:

I was intrigued by the feelings of a person locked up somewhere. Momentary excitement can ruin you and confine you to a prison for the rest of your life. In my film, the convicts tell their stories to the film-maker, played by Juhi (Chawla). And, at the end, each story links with the others.

In another interview before the film's release, Kukunoor spoke about his inspiration from a documentary film on prisoners at the Yerwada Central Jail. After watching this film, he spoke to two ex-convicts who were featured in it. After hearing to their stories, Kukunoor was interested with the premise that a normal person could become a convict so easily. However it took him three years to start writing the script.

Kukunoor wrote the script in English initially and named it as Three Walls. But the producer felt that English title would take away potential audience, who would, otherwise, have watched the film.

The film was made on a budget of 2.1 crore (US$382,200). The budget for this film was comparatively higher than his previous films. Kukunoor reasoned it to cover the cost of three established actors, shooting in a real jail. The post-production was also relatively expensive because of the usage of digital effects and special treatment in shooting prison scenes. Kukunoor also felt that it was important for them to make the film as per international standards because it will reach the crossover audiences. On a certain occasion, Kukunoor said that he has had problems finding funds for making his films. He attributes this problem to sticking out of the stereotype.

Unlike in Kukunoor's previous films, this film contains 75% of its dialogs in Hindi because the script demanded it. Since the convicts couldn’t possibly speak in English, it was imperative for the dialogs to be written in Hindi.

The film has a background score alone. Unlike other Bollywood films which contain songs that are lip-synced by the actors, Kukunoor felt that songs can interfere with the narrative of the film. Although he chose to use songs in Rockford (1999) and Bollywood Calling (2001), he went against using them in this film.