Pallana owned an Indian restaurant, Cosmic Cup (now Cosmic Cafe) in Dallas, Texas which Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson frequented. Anderson cast Pallana in Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Darjeeling Limited. He has also worked in the 2010 Bollywood movie Anjaana Anjaani and the acclaimed independent 2011 film Another Earth.
He died on 10 October 2013 at his home in California, aged 94.
A short documentary named KUMAR:MKE, which focused on his connection to the Milwaukee film scene, was released in 2015.
