The man behind Graphicurry... who dons many a hat

Prasad Bhat talks about his journey that made him one of the most celebrated caricature artists in the city, if not the country

Falah Faisal

Bengaluru:  Prasad Bhat has worn many hats – musician, comedian and caricature artist. Now, he is one of the most consistent artists with daily posts on Insta that range from celebrity caricatures to pop culture jokes and social commentary, and his artwork is in the homes of many of the celebrities he’s drawn.

But before he made it big, he had to face many hardships that taught him lessons that help him today. “My marks were too low to get an IT job and too high for a call center so the employment agency suggested I make a fake certificate with lesser marks to get the call center job and for that I downloaded Photoshop and that opened Pandora’s Box,” says Bhat who first started by making caricatures of his father and teachers in his engineering college that was met with amusement.

“I worked as a designer at an events company for starters where the boss was abusive and my next job was even worse. The boss there wanted me to make 3 logos and a brochure in 20 minutes that improved my speed which is why I can post as fast as I can today,” he explains.

It was his next bosses that prompted him to become an entrepreneur he started Graphicurry in 2011 and hasn’t looked back since making caricatures on commission which ma ke t he idea l wedding gifts. “We had participated in one of the Soul Santes and sold out. I had stacks of cash when I got home and that’s when I realized this was something real I could pursue,” he recalls.

Now , his art work adorns the walls of many celebrity homes. But who was the first celebrity he made a caricature of? “It was Vijay Mallya and after he got that picture his troubles started. So I don’t know what it says about my work,” he jokes, adding that the celebrity endorsements help him get more commissioned clients and he does up to 300 caricatures a year.

“I average at one couple a day,” he says. He also ventured into standup comedy for a few years which also helped him bring humour into his art. “It was a reality check. I was already established as a caricature artist but in standup, I had to start from scratch.

It is harder than anything else I’ve done because you need to grab people’s attention and be likable for you to excel in standup,” he says, having taken a break from it after the pandemic, concentrating instead on making NFT artworks that keep him well in his comfort zone at the desk.

One of his artworks did land him in hot water. “It was one called StarBhakts, because of which my wife received threats, which doesn’t bother me much. But what bothers me is if that keeps happening the big clients who commission me now will disappear so I’ve got to play it safe,” concludes Bhat, who doesn’t mind swallowing his pride sometimes in order to survive.