Career
Mehta started his career in television with his show Khana Khazana (1993–2000) and later moved onto movies like …Jayate (1999) and Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar (2000). He then went on to direct City Lights (2014) and Aligarh (2016). Mehta started his career in 1993, by directing with television cookery show Khana Khazana, hosted by Sanjeev Kapoor on Zee television, where he worked till 2000.
Alongside, Mehta also directed several television series like Amrita (1994), Highway (1995), Yaadein (1995), Lakshya (1998) and many more.
He made his debut as a feature film director with..Jayate in 1999, a part of the Indian Panorama 1999-2000 at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Hyderabad. This was later followed by Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! (2000) based on the issue of migrants in Mumbai.
Later that year he came up with Chhal (2002) a slick gangster film that met with more praise than his previous films. By his own admission the films post-Chhal were disappointing and his career entered a phase where he flirted with themes that were more mainstream.
He made his presence felt with his short film in Dus Kahaniyaan, (2007) starring some of the top actors of Bollywood.
In 2008 after the release of Woodstock Villa he went on an extended sabbatical to explore life as a foodie, entrepreneur and to explore themes that mattered to him. Mehta truly came into the lime-light with his film Shahid (2013) starring Rajkummar Rao. The movie is a biographical film on the life of human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was murdered in 2010.
The movie went onto winning the.
After his success with Rajkummar Rao, Hansal Mehta teamed again with Rajkummar Rao to make the acclaimed City Lights (an official adaptation of the British Indie hit "Metro Manila") for Fox Star Studios and Mahesh Bhatt. After his last two successful films, Mehta directed, Aligarh (2016) based on a Marathi professor and poet who was suspended by his university for being gay.
