Shatarupa stumbled into theatre a decade ago in 2009, when she made her stage debut in a production of Mother Courage and Her Children. Since then, she has acted in more than a dozen productions in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, with directors like Mohan Maharishi, Satyabrata Rout, and Vijay Padaki, among others. She made her co-directorial debut last year with a production of Rabindranath Tagores Chitraa and now wants to adapt Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyays Debi Chaudhurani. She has finished her PhD in Development Studies from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, for which she studied local festivals in the Sundarbans.