Ramkripa Ananthan is the head of design for Mahindra & Mahindra, and she played a major role in the development of one of the best-selling SUVs in India, XUV 500. She is among the few celebrated designers of the Indian automobile industry.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Ramkripa Ananthan was born in 1971 (age 49 years; as in 2020). She pursued her mechanical engineering from Birla Institue of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani). Further, she did her post-graduation in Industrial Design from IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. She joined Mahindra & Mahindra in 1997 where she worked as the interior designer for Bolero, Scorpio, and Xylo.
Design of XUV 300 by Ramkripa Ananthan
Physical Appearance
Eye Colour: Black
Hair Colour: Grey
Family & Caste
There is not much information available about Ramkripa Ananthan’s family and caste.
Career
After completing her post-graduation in Industrial Design from IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay, she moved on to join Mahindra & Mahindra as an interior designer to handle the interior designing segment of Bolero, Scorpio, and Xylo. She was then appointed to develop a premium SUV vehicle for the company as they were willing to tap the market of premium SUVs and give competition to other firms. To proceed with the project, the first step of the development was carried out where they conducted a survey of 1500 people to get an idea about their expectations from an upcoming premium SUV. Ramkripa herself is a very active and adventurous person, and she has covered the distance from Manali to Srinagar on her Bajaj Avenger bike. Her inspiration from the outdoors helped her develop the car. When the project started, Ramkripa Ananthan was the first woman design chief in India who got the responsibility to lead a project of designing a car. The project started in 2007, and for four years Kripa, along with her team of 20 employees kept, designing the car. Finally, in 2011, XUV 500 was launched and became a big hit instantly.
Car Collection
Being the chief designer of the XUV 500, Ramkripa is also a proud owner of the vehicle.
Ramkripa Ananthan with new XUV 500
Bike Collection
Ramkripa has two two-wheelers from which she uses her Bajaj Avenger for her long road trips, she also has a Vespa scooter, which is her daily driver.
Facts/Trivia
- While working on XUV 500, Ramkripa was asked to take inspiration from a cheetah for the designing process.
XUV 500 with cheetah inspiration
- After the success of their first project as a team, the XUV 500 team kept working on the alpha-numeric series and designed TUV 300, KUV 100, and they even redesigned the XUV 500. Along with this, they were working on a new MVP, Marazzo.
- Ramkripa’s team consists of young and motivated people. Currently, her team has 5 female designers, and she believes that every individual holds a value irrespective of their gender.
- She loves her job as she gets to visit the automobile shows and meet new people and see new vehicles. She also loves spending time in London or Paris, so that she can sit at a busy street and witness a beautiful Lamborghini or some other sports car drive-by.
