Rawail was born in Lyallpur, Punjab, British India and moved to Mumbai to aspire to be a filmmaker.
[1] The film is still remembered for the song "Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon" performed by Shamshad Begum.
[5] Rawail's major success came with 1963 musical film Mere Mehboob starring Rajendra Kumar and Sadhana Shivdasani.
[6] The film was praised for Rawail's direction and is remembered for title song composed by music director Naushad and performed by singers Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.
Later his 1976 film Laila Majnu, starring Rishi Kapoor and Ranjeeta Kaur in lead roles, became a success.
He paid a tribute to his father's "best work" Sunghursh (1968) by titling one of his film as Jeevan Ek Sanghursh (1990).