Surabhi has been an independent filmmaker making feature-length documentaries and short films since 2000. Her documentaries, fiction, and video installations engage with cities in transition using the lens of labor, music, and migration. Surabhi’s films have been screened and awarded at international film festivals. Her works include: Returning to the First Beat (2017); Bidesia in Bambai (2013); Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean (2007); Above the Din of Sewing Machines (2004); Aamakaar, The Turtle People (2002); and Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories (2001).

Her works have been screened at International Film Festivals like Dubai International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, MAMI Mumbai Film Festival amongst others. She was awarded The Motion Picture Association – Asia Pacific Screen Awards (MPA-APSA) Academy Film Fund, Brisbane, Australia. She has received grants and fellowships from Ford Foundation, Majlis Cultural Centre and the Brit-Doc Foundation. Her films have been recognized and awarded at the 8th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Brisbane ; Eco-Cinema, Greece (The Ramsar-Medwet Award), Film South Asia, Kathmandu ; Karachi Film Festival ; and The Festival of Three Continents, Buenos Aires.
Her video installations including Airplane descending over Jari Mari , Tracing Bylanes, Enactment of Exile in Migrant Mumbai and Riyaaz have been exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, London; nGbK, Berlin, Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture and the 11th Shanghai Biennale.

Surabhi has been a visiting faculty at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad; Whistling Woods International, Mumbai; Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai and K.R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts, Kerala. She has conducted intensive workshops on documentary filmmaking at design and film schools in India and has been a mentor for various editions of Let’s Doc at The Documentary Resource Initiative India. She is currently teaching at New York University Abu Dhabi and is currently serving as the head of the Film and New Media Program.