Imtiaz Ali began his career directing TV programs including Kurukshetra for Zee TV and Imtihaan for Doordarshan. He made his filmmaking debut in 2005 with the romantic comedy Socha Na Tha starring Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia. However, he was supposed to begin making films with Mahesh Bhatt, but that never materialised.

During Mid-day’s Sit With Hitlist conversation, Imtiaz revealed, “Mahesh Bhatt was the first guy who asked me to make a film. I was doing television already. One day I was working with Manoj Bajpayee in a series called Imtihaan (1994). Manoj had mentioned me to Bhatt Saab because they used to meet and he was doing films with them. Bhatt Saab then one day saw some stuff that I had directed. I got a call to go and meet him.