After returning, he served for a time in the Assam Legislative Assembly and joined the Swaraj Party but ultimately moved to Calcutta and later began a career in films, much to the chagrin of his father.

In 1929, he appeared for the first time on the silver screen in a film named Panchashar which was directed by Debaki Kumar Bose.

Pramathesh Barua wanted to go to Europe and get a practical knowledge of the art and craft of film-making.

In 1930, his father Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua sent Pramathesh to England for the removal of a kidney stone.

After the successful operation, he went to Paris with a letter of introduction from Rabindranath Tagore and met M Rogers.

[7] He then made the first film Apradhi (1931) where he was the main lead role and it was directed by Debaki Kr.

Apradhi thus brought radical changes to the technical environment for Directors in Indian cinema.

He played a villain in the film Bhagyalakshmi which was directed by Kali Prasad Ghosh for Indian Cinema Arts.

[citation needed] In 1933, he was invited by BN Sarkar to join New Theatres and this led him to the zenith of his career as a film-maker.

[citation needed] He excelled in all technical aspects of film-making – direction, acting, script writing, photograph composition, editing or any other necessary skills.

He now directed Rooplekha, the first talkie of New Theatres, and also played the lead role opposite Umashashi.

Devdas is also considered a landmark in the world cinema for the introduction of the technique of 'intercut telepathy shot'.

Pankaj Mallik also composed the music for one of the poems of Rabindranath Tagore, 'Diner Sheshe ghumer Deshe'.

[citation needed] It took almost two decades after this film that realistic filmmakers were more interested to shoot outdoors.

Pramathesh Barua also made a brave attempt by trying to blend Indian classical music with a Western symphony.

Noted French film critic Georges Sadoul highly admired Pramathesh Barua for his brilliant use of 'cut-shot' technique which was also a pioneering effort in the early days of Indian cinema.

Barua followed up Devdas with Manzil in 1936, Mukti in 1937, Adhikar in 1938, Rajat Jayanti in 1939, and Zindagi (which reunited him with Saigal) in 1940.