Through his paintings, he depicted the life of the average middle-class Bengali – their aspirations, superstitions, hypocrisy and corruption, and even the violence that is endemic to Kolkata.

His paintings were exhibited outside India; he had shows in 1969 at Paris; between 1970 and 72 in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary; in London in 1982; and in New York in 1985.

The novel, written by Bengali novelist Samaresh Basu, was never completed because of the death of the author, but Bhttacharjee's works for the book were some of his best.

Bikash Bhattacharya is credited with bringing realism back to Indian art at a time when artists in India were leaning more towards distortion of figures and abstraction.

Realism was Bhattacharjee's forte; his oil paintings could depict the exact quality of drapery or the skin tone of a woman.

Subject matter included depictions of the female form, and people of all ages and situations—old men and women, children, domestic help.