He made his debut as a director in 1949, with Mahal, starring Madhubala and Ashok Kumar, which was a musical hit, with songs by Lata Mangeshkar and Rajkumari Dubey.
Saigal discovered him and took him to Mumbai (Bombay) to work for Sohrab Modi's Minerva Movietone film company, where he started his career working on films like Jailor (1938), Pukar (1939), Bharosa (1940), A.
In 1938, he left Amroha to study in Lahore, now part of Pakistan, where singer K. He was a first cousin to Pakistani writers Jaun Elia and Rais Amrohvi. Kamal Amrohi was born in Amroha, United Provinces in British India (present-day Uttar Pradesh) and later took on the name Kamal Amrohi (or Amrohvi).