Arif Babayev was admitted into the directing program and was taught by director and actor Mehdi Mammadov.
Mehdi Mammadov entrusted Mayor's role from N.V.Gogol’s The Government Inspector to Arif Babayev.
He returned to Baku after some time and began working as a stage director at the Theater of Young Spectators.
In these years, he shot a number of documentaries, staged television plays, such as Moabit Diaries by Musa Cälil, Blind Woman by Taras Shevchenko, Law by Rasul Rza, and The Morning by Mehdi Huseyn.
In 1964, he debuted as a director with short the film Summit, the first one in the series Whom We Love More,[4] based on original screenplay by Imran Gasimov.