Govind Nihalni started his career as a cinematographer with the film, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1971). The film was directed by the Marathi playwright Satyadev Dubey. It was not before 1980 that he started to direct his own films. He quickly became a name to be reckoned with the `New Cinema` directors.

From the beginning Nihalani`s conception of cinema was tied up with cinematography, which was his first area of interest, and many of his films received awards ands for this and other aspects of filmmaking. Some of his films, following they example of Benegal and Jabbar Patel, have been based on the screenplays by Vijay Tendulkar. The latter was one of the most important contemporary playwrights of the realist mode. These scripts were originally in Marathi. These stories usually revolved around political themes and the individual`s dilemma in the circumstances, which arise from them. The sterling talent of Om Puri made him one of Nihalani`s favorite actors.

In the last few years Nihalani`s films have tended towards sensationalism of urban crime and the corruption of the powers that be. It brings out the public`s disenchantment with the political system and their leaders, which had been growing since the 1970s. Since Tamas (1987), this director has worked more and more for television by making telefilms based on Indianised adaptations of Western playwrights, such as, Ibsen, Lorca and Strindberg. He has shot over 14 fiction films in Hindi, of which four are made for television.

Some of Govind Nihalani`s outstanding films include Aakrosh (1980), Vijeyta (1982), Ardh Satya(1983), Party (1984), Drohkaal (1994), Drishti (1990), Hazaar Chaurashi Ki Maa (1997), Thakshak (2000), Dev (2004) and others. Aakrosh had a cast which included some of the main actors of New Cinema of that time, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri. The screenplay of the film was based on a real life incident. This political thriller denounced the treatment meted out to the `adivasis.` Nihalani set high standards for making political thrillers. His films received wide acclamations and are till date remembered for their reality. The city of Mumbai was often treated as a background to his films which was undergoing profound changes where corruption was overriding social and political problems.