 Unlike his contemporaries, scriptwriting was the first love of Adeeb, who worked in the scriptwriting department with Raj Kapoor's father, Prithvi Raj Kapoor, in Prithvi Theatre and later with Indian National Theatre as assistant director.It is during this time in India that he got to know the basics of acting which later helped him entertain 2 generations of audience.Although he worked in minor roles in his initial career, it was Zia Sarhadi's "Footpath" (1953) that gave him his first breakthrough role opposite Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari and Anwar Hussain (Nargis's brother).