Pritam Chakraborty, fondly known as Pritam, was born in Kolkata. He is the son of Prabodh Chakraborty, who runs a music school for children. Pritam initially gained training in music from his father, and also learned to play the guitar while he was in school. He attended St. James' School, after which he completed his education in Presidency College. He formed a band with his college batchmates, called "Jotugriher Pakhi". Pritam later joined Bangla band, “Chandrabindoo”.
In January 1993, Pritam Chakraborty joined the Film and Television Institute in Pune to undertake a course in sound recording and sound engineering. He was soon offered a chance to compose background music for a film by Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Gaal. He also learnt African music from musicologist Kedar Avati. Pritam Chakraborty later moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in Bollywood. He began composing ad jingles, and became friendly with a number of talented men who were trying to make it big in Bollywood, like Shantanu Moitra, Rajkumar Hirani, Sanjay Gadhvi and Chandrajeet Ganguly, also known as Jeet, who played the guitar with Anup Jalota.
Pritam Chakraborty has scored the music for few forthcoming films like Fauj Mein Mauj (2008), Har Pal and Kidnap. Pritam has been the recipient of GIFA, Zee Sangeet Awards, Sahara Sangeet Awards, Stardust and the MTV IMMIES. Pritam’s hit songs are known to be blatantly copied from musicians around the world. Several of Pritam's hit compositions are said to have been inspired from Turkish singer Tarkan's songs. Pritam has been one of the judges in the musical show “Chhotte Ustaad”.