Hailing form a middle-class Bengali family, Bishnu Dev Halder spent his childhood in a small village before being sent to military boarding school, Sainik School Bhubaneswar. Wanting to be a filmmaker since the age of 13, Bishnu, a graduate in English literature, completed his post-graduate Diploma in Direction and Screenplay Writing from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in 2007. He has been working as an independent filmmaker ever since.

Bagher Bachcha, Bishnu’s student documentary film at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, won the National Film Award for the Best Non-feature Film on Social Issues in 2007. His first feature documentary, I Was Born In Delhi..., shot over a period of five years, was Nominated in the competition section, First Appearance, of the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2011.