Born as Pamela Juneja, she was director and screenwriter of feature and documentary films. During her mass communication studies in Delhi she joined a local theatre group
Delhi Theatre Action Group (TAG). After graduation she worked as a journalist, and later while working on television she met her future husband, director Conrad Rooks. She made documentary films, and directed her first feature film
Miss Beatty's Children in 1992. She based it on her own novel and won and Indira Gandhi award for first film at National Film Awards in 1993. Her following film
Train to Pakistan (1998) drew international attention.
Dance Like a Man (2004) was her last film. She was in a car accident in November 2005, and after a five-year-log coma she died in 2010.