After his schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and graduation from Ramjas College, Delhi, he moved to Mumbai to pursue an MBA degree from SVKM's NMIMS.

[3] In 2011, Bahl made his directorial debut under UTV Spotboy alongside co-director Nitesh Tiwari with Chillar Party and won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay, with Vijay Maurya.

[5][6] In October 2014, he directed a short film Going Home, featuring Alia Bhatt, on women's safety, which went viral on social media.

"[14] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "Ganapath is painfully pea-brained pulp that makes a meal of a terribly thin storyline.

[24] After, Phantom Film subsequently disbanded, and founders Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane made formal statements against Bahl and his sexual misdemeanors.