This is Emraan Hashmi's third movie concerned with cricket.
In the starting of the movie we see that Akshay Kumar has been given special thanks. This is because Azhar is the third film of director Tony D'Souza , his first two films being Blue and Boss , both featuring Akshay Kumar in lead roles. Tony D' Souza considers Akshay Kumar as his mentor and hence he was given special thanks in the beginning.
The song Oye Oye is a compilation of Sangeeta Bhijlani's hit songs from Tridev as the character is based on her.
Pakistani actress Urwa Hocane was earlier offered the lead female role of Sangeeta Bijlani, however, she refused saying that she didn't want to do bold scenes.
The film has generated controversy prior to its release over a story line that absolves the protagonist Mohammad Azharuddin from charges of fixing matches in return of money. M A Ganapathy the former Superintendent of Police in CBI who was the chief investigating officer in the match-fixing case has refuted the movie's clean chit to Azharuddin claiming that his confession is on tape with the CBI. Azharuddin's involvement in match fixing was also accepted by Rakesh Maria, the former head of the Crime Branch and Commissioner of Mumbai Police. In a conversation recorded by the news magazine Tehelka, Maria claims that Azhar had "a criminal bent of mind"