He spent his early years writing and directing for local theatre and television, before moving from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in late 1999, where he began working as chief assistant director to
Sanjay Gadhvi at
Yash Raj Films. They worked on three films together:
Tere Liye,
Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (2002; Mayur's first as a screenwriter), and
Dhoom (2004). During his first year in Mumbai, he also wrote and starred as the lead in a Gujarati play,
Amastaa Amastaa (2001). In 2004, Mayur left Yash Raj Films to work as an independent screenwriter and lyricist. His first film as an independent was
My Name is Anthony Gonsalves (2008), an adaptation of
Julius Caesar. His breakthrough as a screenwriter was
Om Shanti Om (2007), from which several phrases entered the film-quote lexicon. Puri was the creative director for the animation film
Jumbo (2008) produced by
Percept Picture Company, and co-wrote
Blue (2009), the first Indian film to be shot extensively underwater. He then wrote the script for
Prince (2010), in which he also appeared in a supporting role. In 2009, Mayur took a sabbatical from
Bollywood; in 2010, he founded Story Circus, a theatre production group that creates live theatre and storytelling productions for educational institutions and other clients, and in 2011, he founded FilmGoa, a joint initiative with
Goa University which provides training and job support to aspiring film-makers and facilitates film making in
Goa. Mayur's next
Bollywood project was
Remo D'Souza's directorial debut
F.A.L.T.U (2011), the script and screenplay for which he had written a few years previously. Through his Story Circus project, Mayur reconnected with director
Farah Khan, whose children were attending one of the workshops, and began working on the script for her next project
Happy New Year. Around the same time, he began working with composer
Pritam on songs for
Race 2 (2013) and
I Love New Year (2013). "Be Intehaan" from
Race 2 was later ranked as the 7th most romantic song of 2013, according to a poll in
The Times of India. By 2012, Mayur had returned to full-time writing, contributing additional dialogue and lyrics for Remo D'Souza's next musical
ABCD: Any Body Can Dance (2013).
Happy New Year was released in 2014, with a script written by Mayur. On 17 November 2014, the library of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences selected the screenplay for
Happy New Year for its permanent Core Collection. ==Directorial work==