She taught Photography at The School, KFI, Chennai during 1986/1989. In 1993 she completed a four year Certificate and Diploma Course in Applied Art and Design Studies at the London Guildhall University. She was awarded the Art Prize by the Owen Rowley Art Foundation in London in 1993. She was among the prize winners in ‘Our Big City’ competition organized jointly by the Evening Standard Newspaper Group and Carlton TV in London in October 1993. In 1994 she was nominated for the Leopold Godowsky Jr. colour photography Awards of the Photographic Resource Centre, Boston. In January 2007, The Academy of Visual Media, New Delhi, awarded Mala their “Achievement Award” for outstanding contribution to Photography.

In 2002 BLINK, a publication by the Phaidon Press, London, featured her among 100 contemporary Photographers of the world. She has conducted Workshops on Colour Photography at Dhaka and Sylhet in 2003 at the invitation of Drik, Bangladesh. In 2006 Mala visited China at the invitation of the Peoples’ Republic of China to participate in a photo event titled “Xinjiang in the eyes of Chinese and Foreign photographers” and again in 2011 to attend the inaugural exhibition of the China International Photographic Gallery Alliance in Lishu, China. She is a member of The International Alliance of Photo Galleries.

Mala has held Solo exhibitions at : Cottons Centre London 1991&1992, St.Giles Church Oxford 1993, Sakshi Gallery Bangalore 1994, Y.B.Chavan Art Gallery Mumbai 1995, B.C.D. Gallery-Mumbai 1995, Sakshi Gallery Chennai 1995, Birla Academy Art Gallery Kolkata 1995, Nehru Centre Art Gallery Mumbai 1995, The Piramal Gallery Mumbai 1996, Lalit Kala Akademi New Delhi 1997, IIC Gallery New Delhi 1998, Lalit Kala Akademi Chennai 1999, Nehru Centre Art Gallery Mumbai 1999, La galerie de l’Alliance Française de Dhaka – Bangladesh 2000, Birla Academy Art Gallery Kolkata 2001, Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata, Gallerie Zen Bangalore 2002, Nandan Gallery Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan 2002, Academy of Fine arts Kolkata 2004, Gorky Sadan- Kolkata 2004, Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata 2006, IIC Gallery New Delhi 2006, Apparao Infinity Gallery New Delhi 2007, Akar Prakar Gallery Kolkata 2007, Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata 2007, Nehru Centre Art Gallery Mumbai in 2008, Nandan Gallery Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan 2008 and Academy of Fine Art-Kolkata 2008.

Apart from several Group Shows in London during 1991/1993, Mala took part in “Women ’96”, an Art Front Group show at the Jehangir Art Gallery Mumbai and in Group exhibitions at the Nehru Centre Art Gallery Mumbai 1997, Y.B. Chavan Art Gallery Mumbai 1998, Academy of Fine Arts Calcutta 2001, Guildhall University London 2001, Cancer Foundation exhibition at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata 2005, ‘Kolkata Festival’ of Times of India at Town Hall Kolkata 2006, AVM Photography Award 2006 at the AIFACS, New Delhi and in exhibitions organized by the Chinese Embassy in 2007 at the Birla Academy Art Gallery, Kolkata, & Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, in “The Four Seasons in Xinjiang Photo Exhibition” organised by The Chinese Photographic Association in Beijing in March 2007 , Birla Academy Art Gallery in April 2009, ‘Urban India through the lens” at Habitat Centre in Sept 2009, International Artists Exhibition, Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2010, the 44th Annual Exhibition at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata in January 2011, International exhibition titled ‘One Nest’ at Birla Academy of Art and Culture in October 2011 which she also organized and curated, and at the Photography Museum of China at Lishui in November 2011.

Her work has been acquired by many Institutional collectors such as : Alliance Française de Dhaka, Archives of Centre For Photography As An Art Form at NCPA Mumbai, Archives of Metropolitan University London, India International Centre, New Delhi, JBNSTS, Kolkata and by Corporate bodies such as ABN Amro Bank Mumbai, Alliance Capital Inc, New York, Apcon Ltd Chennai, Carborandum Universal, Chennai, Delhi Development Authority, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, ICI Ltd Mumbai, ICICI Bank, Indian Oil Corpn. Kolkata, Office of the C & A.G New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs New Delhi, Quality Audit & Services, Kolkata, Standard Chartered Bank Mumbai and Wooltop Weaves Pte Ltd., Chennai.