Farah Khan was originally going to make a film called "Happy New Year." The film was to be a romantic comedy set at New Year's Eve and would star 'Shah Rukh Khan' , Juhi Chawla, Raveena Tandon, Amitabh Bachchan, Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan and Priyanka Chopra. However, due to the actors' scheduling conflicts, she scrapped the idea and chose another concept based on/inspired from various 1970s films.
Composer A.R. Rahman was meant to compose the songs for this film, but had to decline due to other commitments.
The title of the film is taken from a 1970s-style disco song in Subhash Ghai's Karz (1980). Ghai himself makes an appearance in this film.
Shanti's film is called "Dreamy Girl," after Dream Girl (1977), the 1970s hit that took Hema Malini to super-stardom (and also landed her with her iconic nickname of Dream Girl).
The song "Dard-E-Disco" was originally to be shot with only Shakira after Farah Khan choreographed her performance at the 2006 VMA's, but her upcoming concert tours rendered her unavailable. Then Farah Khan recalled a promise 'Shah Rukh Khan' made to her when shooting the song "Jiye Jale" in Dil Se.. (1998): that if he would show his abs for another film, it would be for a film she was directing. She called upon his promise, and he shot for the song.
Shah Rukh worked out for 3 months prior for the song Dard-e-disco.