Pramita Mukherjee shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Pramita , really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: Would YOU hire you? Why or why not?
This is a very interesting question and I never really have talked about it.
Well Yes, I would hire myself without hesitation. As an alpha personality who thrives on discipline, accountability, and ownership, I bring relentless dedication and a results-driven mindset to everything I take on. My strong time management and commitment to delivering high-quality work make me a reliable asset in any fast-paced, high-responsibility environment. I don’t need to be micromanaged—on the contrary, I perform best when trusted with leadership and autonomy.
However, the only potential drawback is that my intensity and high standards may not align well with overly structured or control-heavy environments. I function best in roles that value trust, initiative, and impact.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Pramita Mukherjee is an animation professional with 18 years of experience, currently working at DreamWorks Animation as a Character Effects Animation Development Artist.
Originally from Kolkata, India, she began her career in 2007 as a Rigger in the Indian animation industry at just 19—a notable achievement given the industry’s limited visibility in the region at the time. Over the years, Pramita has worked across Mumbai, London, and Los Angeles, contributing to a diverse range of feature films, TV shows, and music videos. Her credits include commercially and critically acclaimed blockbusters such as Bad Guys 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Croods: A New Age, Penguins of Madagascar, Boss Baby, Wonder Woman, Fantastic Beast and Venom to name a few.
Beyond her filmmaking career, Pramita is deeply committed to mentorship and advocacy for women in animation and visual effects. She has been a mentor with Women in Animation (WIA) for over five years, guiding more than 100 young women , many of whom have successfully launched careers in the industry and delivering 10 short films projects and art work in the process. She is also a member of the Visual Effects Society (VES) and serves on the VES Awards Committee. Early in 2024, she joined the Board of Directors for Asians in Animation (AIA), furthering her mission to uplift underrepresented voices in the industry and mentoring their leadership. She is also an active public speaker and a Jury in various animation film festivals and conferences.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
Over the last eighteen years of my career, my achievements as an animator have been deeply enriched by my relationship with my husband, Pradipto Sengupta who is also an animator. We both embarked on this path together in 2007 at WEBEL Animation Academy — learning, growing, and competing side by side.
From studying together in Kolkata to navigating the highs and lows of the same company, vying for the same promotions, and supporting each other through many award‑nominated projects across the globe. Our professional journeys have mirrored each other’s with grace and tenacity. While we’ve each taken ownership of our own roles, the love, appreciation, competition, and ultimate support we’ve offered one another have taught me invaluable lessons — not just about animation, but about perseverance, leadership, empathy and partnership. Each of which plays such an important role in shaping a person from within.
While I say this, it is also equally difficult and challenging in many ways. In my 13 years of marriage and 18 years of knowing each other , we had to make few difficult individual career choices which made us stay in different cities, countries working at different animation studios and building our ambitions together yet apart. It’s not an easy choice to live with in today’s society but we successfully navigated all of it.
My success is truely built on the foundation of our shared experience, mutual respect, and the unshakeable understanding that makes us rise stronger together.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
There is No Success without Struggles!!
My career has been marked by resilience in the face of significant early‑industry challenges. When I started in the animation scene in India in 2007, the field was still almost unknown and opportunities were scarce.
I am the only girl child in the family and fortunate enough to be raised with princess treatments. Clearly no one in my family or society around really understood, why a 19 year old has to leave all the comforts behind and go for her first job far from home that too in animation which no one really heard of back then. While knowing this new life would be full of struggles and hardships my parents , who for sure is the biggest motivation of my life throughout, supported me fully with all the life lessons I needed to come out of my Cinderella mode and face the reality. I still remeber one of my fathers learning “ today if you learn to survive with little earnings and struggles in life, then tomorrow, life will be a cake walk and sky will be your limit”!!
As a young woman in a male‑dominated environment, I found myself one of only two women rigging artists in a batch of 100, a reminder of the gender imbalance I would constantly navigate. Doing graveyard shifts for months and trying to “Fit In” did not give a very bright and sparkling start to my career. But I have always been very determined and hard working which soon made my difficulties into success.
During the global recession of 2007‑2009 and beyond, I survived months of unemployment in Mumbai, borrowed money from friends and family, and even experienced sudden studio closures that left me jobless and, in some cases, unpaid.
Very early on , in my career I learnt how volatile our animation and VFX industry is and how important it is to keep upscaling my talent for effective production and survival skills. Emotional breakdown , months of no job and the society pressure of prooving worth around you can easily take away the passionate artist from within and throw you out of the industry before you know.
Later, relocating internationally to London and then Los Angeles brought fresh hurdles like adapting to new cultures and new cities. After spending more than a decade working in India , in 2017 for the first time I moved out of the courty for work. and working away from family at the time when my father was going through is cancer treatment was a whole different thing.
Working vs managing is always so different. Even though in a hard way , I was still fortunate enough to learn how important it is to understand the cultural background of my team well enough to be able to effectively communicate with them for a more collaborative production in a healthy environment.
Through all this, I emphasize that in this career there are no shortcuts — surviving and thriving require learning constantly, taking risks, owning your value, and “voicing up” when needed. Confidence is a primary key but ability to take criticism and feedback positively and constructively using it to benifit our growth is a critical art to master early on.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
Growing up, I held certain beliefs close to my heart — that good things happen to good people, that the world is inherently beautiful and just, and that quiet hard work naturally earns recognition. However, with experience, I’ve come to understand that reality functions quite differently. Good people don’t simply receive good things; they consciously create them through determination, resilience, and effort. The world doesn’t automatically shape itself to be perfect — it becomes beautiful when we actively build a version of it that works for us. Recognition, too, doesn’t come uninvited; it must be sought through clear communication, confidence, and the courage to claim one’s rightful place. Nothing in life comes for free, and there are truly no shortcuts to lasting success. I also once believed that success was life’s greatest teacher, but time has shown me that it is in fact failure that imparts the most valuable lessons — shaping character, deepening understanding, and paving the path toward genuine growth.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What pain do you resist facing directly?
For me it would be Self Worth. I am a person who is very passionate about my work and anything I commit to.
So self-worth is surely the most profound and fragile aspects of me — it forms the foundation of how I perceive myself and how I engage with the world.
When a person’s sense of worth is shaken, it can silently erode their confidence, their motivation, and even their sense of belonging. Feeling unworthy can make even the simplest tasks feel heavy, as if every effort is met with an invisible question mark — Am I good enough? It’s a quiet pain that doesn’t always show, but it lingers beneath every success and every failure, whispering doubt into moments that should bring pride.
The absence of self-worth can make people overcompensate, seek validation from others, or withdraw completely, questioning their place in their work, relationships, and even their own dreams. Yet, the truth is that self-worth is not something to be earned through achievement or approval; it is an intrinsic value that must be recognized and nurtured from within. Rebuilding it often requires patience, compassion, and the courage to confront one’s own insecurities — to understand that worth is not measured by external outcomes, but by the quiet resilience of simply showing up, again and again, despite the weight of doubt. And that is surely one of the most difficult thing to do and one pain I do not want to face directly.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoga_with_pramita?igsh=MXhzbWt6OXV5eWplcw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pramita-mukherjee-46039917?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
