His father, Purnanand Gupta, worked in the State Treasury Office and for several years, was posted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where Hemen spent his early childhood.

He joined the youth wing of the local Congress Party in 1928 and was drawn into what the British authorities considered subversive activities.

As collateral and punitive damage, his extended family also got incarcerated, whereby several members lost their government jobs and pension benefits.

[4][5][6][7][8] During his jail term, he developed a keen interest in the art and science of film making, which was a new medium of mass communication in those days.

Immediately upon his release from prison, he worked in close association with the India's celebrated leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, as his personal secretary.

The themes of several of his films were based on India's freedom movement and he drew upon his personal experiences as a radical activist and the years he spent in prison.

His next film titled Ferry (Kashti in Hindi) in 1952, was a love story that starred Dev Anand and Geeta Bali.