He was known for his amazing work in animation and films like Gharaonda (1977, won the Filmfare Award), Dooriyan (1979) and Ek Anek aur Ekta (1974) which has touched upon several significant issues of the middle-of-the-road cinema wave of the 70s and the 80s.

            Born in Multan (then in Pakistan) in 1936, Khurana moved to Lucknow after the partition. Though he was always inclined towards arts and did study fine arts and classical music at the Lucknow University, he honed his artistic skills while working as a background painter at the Cartoon Film Unit of Films Division and later at Prasad Studios. He learnt animation under the legendary Ram Mohan, who is considered the father of Indian animation.

  His first independent film The Climb (1971) won the Silver Hugo award at the Chicago Film Festival. The film’s title also gave away the name to his production house, Climb Films which has been running for 31 years now. With films like Na, Ek-Do, Munni, Freedom is a Thin Line, Mehmaan, Kahani Har Zamne Ki and Business is People, there has been no looking back for him since, as an esteemed director-producer .