Chetan cleared his Matriculation exams in the first division, and was sent to Government College Lahore, where his classmates were Balraj Sahni and Khushwant Singh, among others. The college was known for its eclectic faculty and a strong bent on art and culture. Chetan started taking an active interest in theatre, while also composing poetry and editing the Hindi journal of the college. Upon graduation, he was shipped off to London to fulfil his father's ambition for him to qualify fo the Indian Civil Services (ICS).

To the displeasure of his father, Chetan didn't complete his studies in London. Having participated in some of the programmes of the Indian service at BBC, he soon returned to India. A desperate job search landed him a position with All India Radio, but the salaries and prospects seemed uninviting, leading him to accept a position as a teacher at the Doon School.

Got married to Uma Chatterji, the daughter of Professor Gyanesh Chander Chatterji, who was head of the Philosophy and Psychology departments at Government College, Lahore.

All this while, Chetan had harboured a dream of joining films. He was already indulging in theatre, and writing scripts for films. Around December of 1943, he made a trip to Bombay and tried to pitch two scripts to filmmakers Kishore Sahu and Phani Majumdar. Majumdar didn't accept his pitch but made a counter offer to act in his new film. This bolstered his confidence and Chetan left his job at the Doon School, and moved to Bombay, his wife in tow.

Chetan worked as an actor with Nargis in Anban, and under the direction of Phani Majumdar in two films Meena aka Vanarani and Rajkumar , all of which released in 1944 and sank without a trace. For a while, Chetan received a salary from the studio but it soon dried up as no work seemed to be forthcoming.

But around the same time, Chetan and Uma took a house on rent at Pali Hill which soon became a hub of artists and creative people. The very address, 41 Pali Hill, became a landmark. Balraj Sahni and his wife Damyanti Sahni lived there for a while, with his brother Bhisham Sahni later joining with his bride for their honeymoon. Poet Safdar Meer came in for tea and stayed back for three years. Camerman Binder Ratra had also lived there. Some of the other frequenters were Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla, Mohan Sehgal, Dilip Kumar's brothers Ayub and Nasir Khan, Zohra Sehgal, Geeta Roy/Dutt, S.D. Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Raja Rao and Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Around the same time, Chetan befriended Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and joined IPTA at his behest. Chetan and his wife Uma, along with several of their friends were already deep into theatre, and IPTA opened up new vistas. But unlike most senior members of the IPTA, he wasn't a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. Ideological rifts emerged and it soon came to a head during a performance at Azad Maidan. While Chetan and Uma were dissatisfied with a bad performance, the rest were content that their message was being conveyed. This cause an argument between Chetan and friends on one hand and Balraj and his communist faction on the other. They parted ways and Chetan formed a new outfit called Hind Manch, with more focus on the artistic aspects of drama than the politics. Members were Mohan Sehgal, Zohra Sehgal, Hameed Butt, Rashid Khan, Krishan Dhawan, Ruma Guha Thakurta and Safdar Mir. Among them was a 12 year-old Goldie aka Vijay Anand, observing closely and often offering suggestions.

Raw stocks for film were hard to come by as most of it was used by the government for war propaganda. Licenses for raw stock were granted to select artists, however. K.A. Abbas was granted one and he went on to make Dharti Ke Lal with IPTA, while danseuse Uday Shankar used it to make the dance film Kalpana. A Kathak exponent Rafique Anwar, a friend of Chetan's, also got a licence. A company called India Films was floated and that was the beginning of Neecha Nagar. Once the idea was locked, Chetan and Uma headed for Kashmir where he developed the screenplay and she spent time with her parents. By the time they returned to Bombay, the script was ready.

Neecha Nagar brought together a number of Chetan's collaborators and friends. While his wife Uma Anand played the female lead, their friend Rafique Anwar played the male protagonist. Zohra Sehgal played a role, while Pt. Ravi Shankar. Ruma Guha Thakurta and Gopa Lal performed a dance number, choreographed by Zohra. Instead of director, Chetan was credited for "Film Creation".

Through the efforts of Raja Rao and Evelyn Wood, the film was selected for the first Cannes Film Festival, being held that year. Around 11 films were awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. Alongside Neecha Nagar, films like Brief Encounter, The Lost Weekend and Rome, Open City were awarded the prize.

By the time Chetan returned from Cannes, India was in the throes of Partition and Indpendence. Nobody wanted to touch a film produced by a Muslim and directed by a Hindu. The film struggled to secure a release.

His son Ketan Anand was born on 19 July, 1947.

Chetan's last film for Navketan in this phase was Funtoosh, a farce about a man who tries to kill himself, being called off by someone who tries to take advantage of the situation. The story idea was by Amarjeet, and music was by S.D. Burman, lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi. The film was a hit but Chetan realised he and Dev inhabited different worlds. While Dev Anand was the successful star actor wanting to do box office spectacles, Chetan was interested in making human stories. The two decidedd to part ways, and Chetan didn't make another Navketan film until Jaaneman, twenty years later.

By now, Dev Anand was considered a promising new star, aching to prove himself and go to the next level. Chetan, too, was raring to go. The brothers set up a new production house, named after Chetan's two year-old son. They called it "Navketan."

Around January 1950, when India was declared a Republic, Chetan screened Neecha Nagar at Rashtrapati Bhavan at the behest of the-then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Despite this, the film never got a proper commercial release. No distributor was interested in an experimental film. Later, Chetan even begrudgingly added a couple of song and dance items at the insistence of the financier. But the film was never commercially exhibited in the theatre.

Navketan launched its first product. Chetan was still active in theatre and he borrowed the idea for their new film Afsar from Nikolai Gogol's play The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General. Dev Anand starred opposite Suraiya. The film flopped.

Chirag's second with Navketan, Aandhiyan, starring Dev and Nimi, was based on a real incident which came out in the papers. With the film, Dev Anand debuted as a writer. Music was by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. This was the second time Chetan was employing a classical musician as the music director.

Taxi Driver, third project with Navketan but this time he made it a romantic comedy. Vijay Anand/ Goldie, long-time waiting in the wings, debuted as a writer with the film. In this manner, Chetan gave both his brothers a shot at writing for his films. His wife Uma was the co-writer. Music director S.D. Burman went on to win a Filmfare award for the film. Taxi Driver went on to be a raging success, Chetan's first and one of Navketan's biggest box office triumphs of this period.

For the next 7 years, Chetan meandered, indulged in some of his instincts without success. He made a film called Anjali about a Buddhist fable, but it didn't find any favour among the audience. The film is rarely mentioned while talking about his body of work. Chetan himself played the lead as one of the disciples of Gautam Buddha.

Kinare Kinare was a film that arose out of Chetan's association with an individual called Nyay Sharma. Both Chetan and Dev were taken in by his story idea, out of which the film evolved. Dev Anand, Meena Kumari and Chetan himself starred in the lead. The film bit the dust, despite the stellar cast.

The Sino-Indian War left a deep impact on Chetan Anand, who saw himself as a nationalist and a patriot. He began to conceive India's first war film. But the sheer scale made it prohibitive to pull off. Chetan turned to his wife Uma, whose friend was a niece of Pratatp Singh Kairon, acknowledged as the architect of modern Punjab. Kairon was close to Nehru. He listened to the concept and agreed to secure financial support. Haqeeqat had an ensemble cast, bringing together Balraj Sahni, Dharmendra, Jayant, Sanjay Khan, Sudhir, Vijay Anand and several others. Priya Rajvansh was introduced, and music was by Madan Mohan. Both the film and its music was a resounding success. With the film, Chetan also launched his own banner, Himalaya Films.

Akhri Khat (1966) which starred Rajesh Khanna in an early role, was one of Chetan's experiments in filmmaking where a large part of the film was from the perspective of an eighteen month old child, abandoned on the streets of Bombay. Another "experiment" that followed this was Heer Ranjha, based on the epic poem by Waris Shah. Chetan had his entire cast speak dialogues that rhymed. The film, starring Raaj Kumar and Priya Rajvansh, progresses almost entirely in verse.

Haste Zakhm was an ill-advised commercial venture, a lost-and-found story in which Chetan was out of depth. Balraj Sahni, Priya Rajvansh and Navin Nischol starred, and the music by Madan Mohan was a success. With Hindustan Ki Kasam, Chetan was back in his favourite domain of war films. It was based on a mission of the Indian Air Force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and much like Haqeeqat, this one also had an ensemble cast, with Jayant's son - the young Amjad Khan, being launched, along side stars like Balraj Sahni, Vijay Anand, Raaj Kumar and Chetan himself in a cameo. Chetan had to change the climax under pressure of the producers and distributors, and the film was an average grosser.

Navketan was completing 25 years, and Chetan was asked to return and direct one more film for Dev's production house. They ended up making two films together, one for Navketan, Jaaneman - which was a remake of Taxi Driver - and one for Himalaya Films, Sahib Bahadur - which was a remake of Afsar. Amitabh Bachchan, then a relatively young actor, was signed on for Sahib Bahadur, but later replaced with Dev.

Kudrat was a story around reincarnation, and had some of the biggest stars Chetan had ever handled in a film: Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna and Raaj Kumar. It also was one of the rare occasions when Raaj Kumar played a negative role. The music by R.D Burman was a sensation, and the film itself was Chetan Anand's last great triumph at the box office.

Ill-health kept Chetan away from the sets for a long time. Despite having some interesting ideas like his take on the Anarkali legend, and a film on Partition for which he recorded some songs with Adesh Srivastava, nothing materialised. Eventually, he made an inconsequential film called Haathon ki Lakeeren with Jackie Shroff, Zeenat Aman and Sanjeev Kumar. His last significant work was a TV serial for Doordarshan called Param Vir Chakra, which brought together tales of valour and courage from the Indian Armed Forces. Evocatively telling stories of courage and sacrifice by Indian soldiers. the series was well-received by audiences.

Chetan Anand passed away on 6 July, 1997.