Prasad Raghavan

Prasad Raghavan studied Graphic Design
at Trivandrum College of Fine Arts from 1987
to 1991. Subsequently he apprenticed with his elder brother Gopi (an artist and graphic designer) in Kochi, for a year and a half. In 1993, at age twenty-four, he moved to MAA Bozel, New Delhi as a visualiser. The move also marked the beginning of his obsession with cinema and music - he managed to watch almost every concert free, in the Delhi ‘art circuit’ (he missed his favorite Mallikarjun Mansoor, who died the year before he moved). In 1995 Prasad joined Contract Advertising as an Art Director. He discovered Federico Fellini the same year, a huge inspiration in later years. He put his art director skills to good use, making fake entry passes to the bureaucratic India International
Film Festival. In 2000 Prasad moved to Ogilvy & Mather. While at O&M, he bought a video camera and started making low budget ad films and the occasional documentary. He won a few awards for his efforts the same year, at the London International Awards, New York Festivals and Asia Pacific Awards. In 2003 he moved to Saatchi & Saatchi and focused on film, and won a Cannes Lions for directing an ad film for Sony Handycams.

In 2004, Prasad Raghavan resigned from Saatchi & Saatchi to start a film club, A:DOOR – “the world’s best movies, free”. This move marked a new beginning – designing posters based on his interpretations. The posters have won awards in Cannes and the British Design and Art Direction (D&AD), and have recently been exhibited at the Museum Gallery, Mumbai (curated by Bose Krishnamachari and presented by Guild Art Gallery).

His days in big, multinational-driven advertising have come an end, though – Prasad went back to O&M in 2004 for eight uneventful months before he moved to A, an independent agency specializing in films and brand design. Prasad divides his time between ‘A’ and a CR Park basement, where he lives, watches movies and makes art works.