In 2001 Hema had her first international solo at Artspace, Sydney, and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, where she exhibited an installation titled The Nymph and the Adult (also exhibited at the 10th International Triennial – India held in New Delhi) she hand sculpted 2000 lifelike cockroaches, infesting the gallery with them.

[6] In collaboration with Chintan Upadhyay, she did a work titled Made in China,[7] which spoke about mass consumerism, globalisation and a loss of identity through this.

[8] From 2004 onwards, Hema Upadhyay came up with installations that were part of various group shows at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing, China; National Portrait Gallery Canberra, Australia; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel; MACRO museum, Rome, Italy; IVAM, Valencia, Spain; Mart Museum, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, USA; Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; Japan Foundation, Tokyo and the Henie Onstad Kunssenter, Oslo, Norway.

A few months after Hema died, in 2016, her work was exhibited under the theme "Megacities Asia" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Using copyright free images of certain trees found in the area, she created a landscape work without using materials from nature.

In 2003 she was part of the Vasl residency in Karachi where she made a work titled Loco foco motto (which she later in 2007 exhibited in a group show at the Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy) that spoke about the India-Pakistan divide keeping in mind her own family history related to the partition of India.

Constructed of thousands of un-ignited matchsticks assembled into elaborate chandeliers, these pieces embody an important element of Hindu ritual, symbolising creation and destruction.

Her later works featured patterned surfaces, which quote from Indian spiritual iconography and traditional textile design, titled Killing Site.

Source:[7] Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani were killed on Friday, 11 December 2015, reportedly over a financial dispute.

In 2013, Hema had filed a harassment case against Chintan, accusing him of painting obscene sketches on the walls of their Mumbai flat.

[10] Represented by Bhambhani, she lost the case after the court ruled that Chintan's bedroom was his personal space.

When Vidyadhar's father fell ill and faced financial troubles, Chintan paid for his medical expenses of over ₹ 500,000.

On the day of the murders, he called Hema to his Kandivali warehouse, claiming that he had some video evidence that could strengthen her case against Chintan.

[17] On 11 December, the day of the murders, Hema called her domestic help Lalit Mandal around 6.30pm, informing him that she would have dinner outside.

[21] When Hema did not return home at night, her domestic help Mandal tried to contact her, only to find her mobile phone switched off.

[22] On Saturday, around 7:30 pm, a sweeper noticed a hand in the boxes floating in the drain, opposite a crematorium in the Dahanukar Wadi area of Kandivali.

Based on the CCTV footage and call records, the police determined that the two had met at her studio in Andheri, and left in Bhambhani's car.

This, in addition to the call detail records of the victims, led the police to Vidyadhar's fabrication unit in Laljipada area of Kandivali.

[18] A Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police intercepted Shiv Kumar on his way from the Varanasi station to his native village Gosaipur.