Mazumdar immigrated to Canada from Bombay in 1969 at the age of 17. After he graduated in Communication Studies from Loyola in 1972, found himself in Stephenville for the 1976 Provincial Drama Festival where he was adjudicator. Impressed with the caliber of performers from around the province and encouraged by local volunteers, Mazumdar decided that Stephenville was a good place for a yearly theatre festival.Mazumdar returned to Newfoundland in 1978 and, over the next two years, he established the Provincial Drama Academy (a summer theatre school for high school students) and the Stephenville Festival. At the time, there were only five or six people on payroll. Still, he managed to produce Macbeth and The Man Who Came To Dinner at the Arts and Culture Center in Stephenville, drawing a wide range of audiences.
The Stephenville Theatre Festival grew to a further level in 1984 and 1987 when Maxim Mazumdar and his company toured Jesus Christ Superstar and Cyrano de Bergerac to Halifax and St. John's. The shows were a huge hit 'on the road'. Maxim Mazumdar passed away in 1988, just months before the 10th Anniversary Festival season.
The Stephenville Theatre Festival still goes on today and is widely recognized for having made a substantial contribution to the development of theatre in this province. Mazumdar's career was cut short by AIDS in 1988, when he died at the age of 36.