His first book of poems, ‘My Thoughts in White and Black’, was published in 2007. The following year, he turned lyricist and released a private album Ummeed, for which he wrote all the eight songs.

He was involved in or initiated a book burning agitation against inclusion of Rohinton Mistry’s book ‘Such a Long Journey’, which was critical of his party’s violent actions, in Mumbai University’s reading list in 2010. Thackeray alleged that the book included insulting language against his family and Marathis

In October 2019, Thackeray contested the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election from the Worli constituency in Mumbai and subsequently emerged victorious. In doing so, he became the first member of the Thackeray family to contest and win elections. He became the Cabinet Minister for tourism, protocol and environment on 30 December 2019 in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Prior to getting officially elected, Thackeray played instrumental role in few projects during the Devendra Fadnavis-led government government, prominent one being ban of single use plastics in Maharashtra, which was well received by residents of the state. He also played vital role in importing Humboldt penguins for the first time in India to be exhibited in Byculla Zoo. Importing of penguins from South Korea was panned by environmentalists and politicians considering the tropical climate of the city. This earned him the nickname of “baby penguin” following reports of deaths of few penguins due to bacterial infections. In July 2020, a man was arrested by the Mumbai Police for calling Thackeray ‘Baby Penguin’ on Twitter.