Mukul S. Anand made his debut as a director with the suspense thriller Kanoon Kya Karega (1984), which was inspired by the Hollywood film Cape Fear. His second film Aitbaar (1985) was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's classic Dial M for Murder. The film that first gained him recognition was the epic film Sultanat (1986), which brought together real-life father and son Dharmendra and Sunny Deol for the first time and introduced actress Juhi Chawla. His first box-office success was Insaaf (1987). He finally hit the big league with the Scarface-inspired crime thriller Agneepath (1990) with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role, which won Amitabh a National Award for Best Actor.He worked with Bachchan for the final time in the epic film Khuda Gawah (1992). Mukul died of a heart attack at the age of 45 on 7 September 1997.