After graduating from FTII-Pune, Pankaj returned to Baroda and put up a theatrical production of his black comedy Kataria Gul Hui Gawa.

In 2000 Pankaj received a '1.3 million – 13 days no-holds barred on creative aspect' offer from Digital Talkies which he grabbed and gave birth to the now iconoclastic, underground, cult classic Urf Professor.

With support of Shekhar Kapur (guest of honour at International Digital Film Festival of India); Pankaj, Roger Savage (sound engineer, Moulin Rouge), and Jill Billcock (editor, Moulin Rouge) collaborated at 'Sound Firm', Australia, to make a version more suited for an English-speaking audience; the effort came to a naught.

Shripal Morakia of iDream Production gave him a chance to make his stylised, surreal, psychological thriller Cape Karma.

[13] Cape Karma, shot in the winter of 2005 in Dundee, Scotland with its non-linear story telling and undercurrents of violence and disconcerting sexual theme proved to be much ahead of its times for an Indian audience and is one of Pankaj's least-seen films.