His first directorial venture was Aakrosh starring Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, the late Smita Patil and the late Amrish Puri. The film is scripted by Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar. The film shared the Golden Peacock for best film at the International Film Festival of India held in New Delhi in 1981. [4][5] He then directed Ardh Satya, based on a story by S. D. Panwalkar. the film has received critical reception for depicting the police-politician-criminal nexus. In 1997, he adapted Bengali novelist, Mahasweta Devi's acclaimed novel by the same name to Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa[6][7]
Nihalani was born on 19 December 1940 in Karachi, Sindh province (now in Pakistan) and his family migrated to India during the partition of 1947. He started out as a cinematographer, graduating in cinematography from the Shree Jaya Chamrajendra polytechnic(the present Government Film and Television Institute)[8] in Bangalore in 1962. He was an Assistant Cinematographer to the legendary V. K. Murthy.He was associated with all the earlier films of Shyam Benegal and with the cinematography of Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning epic Gandhi. Nihalani and Benegal are well known for their socially relevant films. [9][10]
