Hansal Mehta directed `Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!` which was released in the year 2000. Starring his good friend Manoj Bajpayee, along with Tabu and Saurabh Shukla, the film was a box office debacle. The film was about migrant life, centred on a village man moving to a big city to earn his living. 

In a recent conversation with Mid-day, Mehta described how the film came about and how Saurabh Shukla wrote the film. "Saurabh was working in a series called Rishtey, in a story about a fat man falling in love. It was called `Ae Motey` - much before Bala and all these movies happened - it was about a man, who can`t tell a woman because he`s worried about his size. We were shooting that and Saurabh was a bit restless. He was upset about something going on in his professional life. So, I sat with him and said I have a story.