The story of Apna Asmaan is so unusual that one day Irfan Khan, the male protagonist, in the film asked the director Kaushik Roy about the inspiration behind the story and was surprised when the director revealed that the story was partly based on the life of his son.

Though the main story of Apna Asmaan is a work of fiction, a lot of things about the story are based on real life, the life of Kaushik's son Orko's life, a mildly autistic slow learner. Orko had serious motor coordination problems and till the age of eleven, he could not even hold a pencil and write A, B, C. Suddenly one day, he turned his handicap into his strength by starting to draw with bold, uninterrupted lines. This inspired Kaushik to encourage people to look beyond their weaknesses and parents to encourage children to pursue their own dreams rather than chasing their own. After this incident, Irrfan developed a very special relationship with Orko who would often visit the sets. In fact, the actor would start his day by taking a photograph of Orko and himself together. Even to this day, every mail or sms from him to Kaushik has to have a mention about Orko.