[2][3] After working in theatre and advertising, he made his debut with Garm Hava directed by M. S.
[4] After that he worked largely in South Indian cinema, especially Telugu, though he work on two noted Hindi art films, Bazaar (1982) directed by Sagar Sarhadi and Anjuman (1986) directed by Muzaffar Ali.
[6][7] He was born in the Ahsan family and is a nephew of Shaukat Kaifi and first cousin of Shabana Azmi.
He was married to film, television and stage actress Sulbha Arya.
Cinematographer Baba Azmi who is his first cousin, started his career assisting Arya in Telugu films in the 1970s, starting as light boy, he worked with Arya for 10–12 Telugu films.