Acharya was best known for Loins of Punjab Presents, the film he co-wrote with Anuwab Pal, directed, acted in, and co-produced.

[1] Released theatrically to great critical acclaim in 2007 in India and the US, the film starred Shabana Azmi, Ayesha Dharkar and Ajay Naidu among others.

[1] Acharya completed his Undergraduate Studies from Grinnell College in Iowa, USA, with a major in Physics.

At the age of 30, Manish left corporate America to study film directing, and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University (NYU)'s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

Acharya was critically injured in a horse riding accident on 4 December 2010, in Matheran, India.