He comes from a filmi background considering Ram dayal sabarwal the producer who launched rekha is his nana, Suneel and Dharmesh darshan are his nana's first cousins while Lali and David dhawan are his dads first cousins and his biggest influence has been his chachu Manish malhotra.
Manish asked him to assist Karan johar in kabhi kushi kabhi gham while he was 19 and had nothing to do after his college which continued as he also assisted on Kal ho na ho and Kabhi alvida na kehna. After his third film Karan who had already seen a director in him asked him if he wanted to direct. Karan agreed to invest his money if he had a good script and when punit approached him, he immediately agreed and I hate luv storys happened.
Talking about Manish malhotra, he is very protective about punit. He would want him to party and enjoy but not on the cost of his work suffering.
Punit finds himself very similar to Imran khan due to which they share a very good rapport. He finds Avantika to be a perfect match for Imran as what Imran lacks she makes up for him. He feels if he were a girl he would be safest with Imran.
Punit is very romantic at heart and is very attached to his mom. He hates god and hates the fact that people believe in god. He believes its better to help others rather than wasting time in praying.