Sharmistha's theatre and performance works include Elephants in Rooms (co-created with Gob Squad; premiered at HAU Berlin and presented as part of the Venice Biennale Theatre 2024), Romeo Ravidas aur Juliet Devi (part of several national festivals including Kala Ghoda Festival 2020), Her Letters (commissioned by the Tagore Centre Berlin, Kala Ghoda Festival 2018), and Sadasarvada Purvapar (commissioned by Lalit Kala Kendra, Savitribai Phule Pune University). Her work has been presented in venues and festivals across India, Europe, and the United States, including Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, HAU Berlin, Venice Biennale Theatre, and the Tagore Centre Berlin.

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In film, she wrote and directed the short films New York, Letters of War (2024), which premiered at the New York Shorts International Film Festival, and Jenga (2020), selected for the Kodak 16mm Analog Film Competition and screened at the Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, as well as other international film festivals. She trained in filmmaking at Prague Film School and holds a Certificate in Film Appreciation from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). She is currently developing her debut feature film, Frequency of Love.

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Her recognitions include the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2022–23), the Asia Art Archive–Inlaks Art Grant (2017–18), and research grants from the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the India Foundation for the Arts. She is the author of Theatre and National Identity in Colonial India (2018) and co-editor of Performance Making and the Archive (2021).

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Sharmistha was Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at IIT Bombay and has also taught and lectured at New York University, Drama School Mumbai, NMIMS, and other institutions. She holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from Freie Universität Berlin, where she graduated summa cum laude.