[1] At the age of eleven, he read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend, which inspired him to take up writing.
[2] Bali Rai showed parts of his debut novel, (Un)arranged Marriage, to literary agent Jennifer Luithlen, who agreed to represent him.
Rani & Sukh, which Rai described as a "true mash-up of Shakespeare, Bollywood and Punjabi folk tales", was published in 2004 and later became a GCSE set-text.
His work has been published in various anthologies, including the 2017 book Here I Stand, raising money and awareness for the human rights charity Amnesty International.
Rai has made appearances on television and radio to discuss racism, his writing, and promoting reading for pleasure.