Prabir was born in a remote coastal village, Arikhia, Odisha. He is the sixth child of his parents’ seven children. He was part of a vast joint family of his grandfather, the Jamindar (landlord) of that area. His parents moved to Cuttack City in the late 1950s for his father’s construction business. Prabir graduated from Secondary Board High School in 1967.

In high school, he developed a love for reading and watching movies in Odia (his mother tongue), Bengali, Hindi, and English.