Prem was supposed to be the debut film of Sanjay Kapoor and Tabu as leads (Tabu had done roles as teenager in films like Hum Naujawan). The film was mounted on a big scale with a big budget to be directed by Shekhar Kapoor andoridiced by Boney Kapoor. Shekhar Kapoor and Boney Kapoor collaborated on the very successful Mr.India (1987) after which they started many new projects - Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja and Prem being the two two projects. But Shekhar Kapoor was the biggest villain of this story.
Shekhar Kapoor is notorious for delaying projects, balooning the budgets and then leaving the film mid way. He did the same with Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja whose budget shoot up to 8 crores an astronomical amount those days and after shooting it for 5 years, the film was left in between, to be completed by his assistant and a dear friend of Anil Kapoor - Satish Kaushik. In order to complete RKRCKR, Prem was put on backburner. Eventually RKRCKR released in 1993 and failed miserably putting the Kapoor clan into debts. So Prem was the next thing on their agenda. Like the previous film Prem was also completed by Satish Kaushik. But by this time Tabu had already made her debut in South and in 1994 she also made her Hindi film debut with Pehla Pehla Pyar opposite Rishi Kapoor which failed. But she gained stardom with Vijaypath released the same year. This gave some hope to the makers and they managed to secure the release date of the film in 1995.
Prem Released in 1995 on 140 screens. The Budget of the film was 5 crores, which was very high for newcomers (DDLJ was made on a budget of 4 crores even with stars and significant shooting overseas). The film could only collect 3.87 crores and was a major failure. The only redeemable feature of the film was the art direction of the film which won a filmfare award.
Sanjay Kapoor was able to redeem his career a bit with the Blockbuster success of Raja the same year but the credit for the film went to Madhuri Dixit. Sanjay Kapoor struggled throughout his career after that. Tabu had a horrible 1995 with two more failures- Haqeeqat and Saajan ki Baahon me but redeemed with Maachis, Jeet and Saajan chale Sasural in 1996 winning the National award in 1996 for Maachis and establishing herself as a strong performer.