Imtiaz Ali

Imtiaz began his career directing TV programs including Kurukshetra for Zee TV and Imtihaan for Doordarshan. He moved on to Bollywood films. In 2005, he made his directorial debut with Socha Na Tha starring Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia. He quoted, later in a talk, that it took him three years to make the film.

His second film, Jab We Met, starred then real-life couple Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor, and became a box office success. His next film, Love Aaj Kal starred Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, and emerged as his biggest commercial success to date. Ali's next film Rockstar, starring Ranbir Kapoor, did well at the box office despite mixed reviews with praise for Kapoor's performance and A.R. Rahman's music which has now achieved cult status.[citation needed]

Ali founded his film production company, Window Seat Films; whose first release was Highway. Starring Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt, the film was well appreciated by critics and is credited as one of his best films. His next production film, Tamasha, starred Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles and was released to mixed reviews on 27 November 2015, although it has went on to achieve cult status for its subject inspiring many youngsters later on and has been recognised as one of Ali's best films. The movie was a moderate success and opened to good reviews from cities.

His next directorial venture Jab Harry Met Sejal, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma in lead roles, was released in August 2017. The film released to negative reviews in India, even though it did well overseas. His next release after 3 years, Love Aaj Kal, starring Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan, released on 14 February 2020, and opened to negative reviews.