Dilip Kumar was the first choice of Raj Kapoor for his epic love saga Sangam. Initially Dilip Kumar was approached by Kapoor to play the role of Gopal Verma. Kumar agreed to play either one of the two male role with condition that he was given the right to edit the final copy of the film. Also Dilip Kumar was not much convinced with the climax of the movie. He believed that the character of Gopal has done nothing wrong and he should not sacrifice his life. Since Raj Kapoor could not accept Kumar's conditions and he was convinced with his climax, he then approached Dev Anand for the role. The latter also declined the role citing date problems as reason.Finally Rajendra Kumar played the memorable character of Gopal.
One of the earliest movies that set up foreign locales as a major attraction was Raj Kapoor’s Sangam. Sangam was Raj Kapoor's first color film, distinguished by its technicolor and epic length(almost 4 hours). It became a hit in India and is considered a classic today. Sangam is ranked as second highest grossing film of that decade behind only Mughal-e-Azam.