Having taken many odd jobs in her early youth, Suchitra Bhattacharya finally joined the public service, leaving in 2004 to become a full-time writer. She started writing short stories in the late-1970s and novels in the mid-1980s. Her novel Dahan was made into a movie Crossfire (1997) by Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh. The short story "Ichcher Gaach" was also made into a full-length feature film Icche, directed by Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy. Hemonter Pakhi was also made into a feature film by Urmi Chakraborty.