When the shoeshine boys discuss seeing Nargis in Awaara (1951), one of them alludes to a shirt worn by a bystander. The shirt is decorated with a recurring pattern showing the famous scene from Awaara (1951) in which Raj Kapoor comes upon Nargis as she is changing clothes, partially hidden by a screen, after swimming. That scene occupies a place in Hindi cinema comparable to that of Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster on the beach in From Here to Eternity (1953).
First film to win the Filmfare Award for Best Picture.
This was the first Indian film to win the International Prize at the
Cannes Film Festival , after Neecha Nagar (1946).
Originally the film showed Nirupa Roy, the mother, dying in the climax and her husband (Balraj Sahni) gaining his piece of land despite the tragedy in his life. But when Bimal Roy's wife saw the film, she found the climax too regressive and inhumane and asked her husband to change the end. Bimal Roy re-shot the end and this time, Nirupa Roy survived but Balraj Sahni lost his piece of land.
Along with the First Film Fare Award in 1954 this film also won the the All India Certificate of Merit at the First National Film Awards in the same year.