An exponent of Kathakali and recipient of the Outstanding Citizen of New York award, Prabal portrays both male and female characters on stage in a way that enthralls the audience.

Prabal Gupta is a Kathakali exponent. He runs an institute named “Centre for Kathakali Art” in Bangalore.

Recalling his childhood memories, Prabal says he was born in Kolkata. He says perhaps the passion for dance his mother had, which she could not fulfill because of societal pressures, came down to him. He was initiated into dance at the age of three years. He first learned Odissi for a year and a-half, followed by five years in Bharatanatyam. When he started learning these dance forms, this field was dominated only by women. His parents did not want him to learn such a dance form, which was dominated by women. Somewhere, he also felt that his personality was not made for Bharatanatyam.

He took training in Kathakali from a South Indian Guru in Kolkata itself for about 14–15 years. But after that, he felt that he should shift to Bangalore, and he thought it was better to learn this art form where it has its roots. He initially trained under Kalamandalam Govindan Kutty and later under Guru Sri Padmanabhan. But he is one artist who believes that dance is a lifelong learning process, and this belief can be seen as part of his real life as, despite being a renowned dancer, he continues to learn the "Stree Vesham," the female Kathkali dance character, under the legendary Guru Natyacharya Sri Sadanam Balakrishnan.

Recalling his struggles, Prabal says that he used to travel from Bangalore to Kerala every week to learn Kathakali. Staying in Bangalore, he had to call musicians from outside the city for his dance. In all this process, he had to face a lot of financial problems. As for his legendary Guru Natyacharya, Sri Sadanam Balakrishna, he says that training under him has given a tremendous boost to his career.

Speaking about his achievements, Prabal says that after receiving several awards, including the “Outstanding Citizen Award of New York," he also received many accolades from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for festivals of India held abroad, and he has taken it upon himself to promote Kathakali across the world. He was invited to the 2018 fest in New York and San Francisco, where he presented a lecture demonstration on Kathakali and its comparative analysis with Bharatanatyam and Odissi in Palo Alto. In addition to this, he has received invitations from a number of prestigious forums to read papers on the subject of dance.

Speaking about his mistakes, Prabal says that his first mistake might have been that he should have started training under Guru Sri Padmanabhan in Kerala and later with his Guru Sri Sadanam Balakrishna; then perhaps his career would have achieved greater heights. He believes that his training in Kolkata did little to help him become skilled at Kathakali dance.

Prabal spends his free time relaxing and processing his thoughts in order to come up with new ideas for his next dance piece. He also enjoys cooking Indian dishes.

Prabal advises new Kathakali dancers to further embellish their art form and let themselves grow in the field rather than start practicing it straight away after coming out of the institute. He believes that today's youth aspire to be stars soon. They make videos and upload them on social media while dancing anywhere, and they  do not worry whether it is a proper stage or not. He says we should respect dance completely. First, learn to train yourself well, then give your performance on appropriate platforms.

Prabal’s life mantra is "Knock, knock, and knock; the door will be opened one day to you.” He says his mother and gurus always taught him to keep learning and keep practicing; you will succeed one day.

Prabal encourages aspiring dancers by saying that the path will not be all roses, that it will be complicated, and that they must forget all frustrations and apprehensions. Just learn to overcome all of it, and you will get the reward of your hard work one day.