Meet Ramkripa Ananthan, the woman who designed new Mahindra Thar, XUV 700

Mahindra Thar is one of most desired SUVs in the country and since the launch of its 2nd-gen model, the lifestyle utility vehicle has scaled new heights. Currently, the demand of Mahindra Thar has reached a new height and waiting period for this car is longer than ever. Although Mahindra Thar had a long legacy, it still had a few key things missing that was hindering it from becoming a people’s favourite, however with the 2nd-gen Thar, Mahindra ticked all the right boxes. There are several people behind the success of the new Mahindra Thar but one person that deserves to get extra credit is Ramkripa Ananthan, also known as Kripa Ananthan. Ramkripa Ananthan is a known face in the automotive industry that helped Mahindra revolutionise the SUV segment. Ananthan, currently working as Head of Design at Ola Electric, was the chief designer of three popular Mahindra products - Mahindra Thar, Mahindra XUV 700 and Mahindra Scorpio.

Ramkripa Ananthan got placed at Mahindra and Mahindra Limited after completing her Master of Design programme from IIT Bombay. She completed her Mechanical Engineering degree from Birla Institute of Technology. Ananthan started her career in 1997 as an interior designer at Mahindra. In 2005, she was appointed as Head of Design and in that role she designed the popular Mahindra XUV 500 SUV. After almost 10 years in that role, Ramkripa Ananthan was promoted to the role of Chief Designer after which she recreated iconic designs for three products- Thar, XUV 700, and Scorpio.

Ananthan also designed a personal vehicle portfolio by introducing the Mahindra XUV 300 compact SUV and the Marazzo MPV that were conceptualised along with international teams based in Ssangyong and MANA. Ramkripa Ananthan became the Chief of Design at Mahindra in 2019 and after her brief stint of 2 years at that role, she left to set up her own design studio called the KRUX Studio.

The KRUX Studio has so far unveiled a micro-mobility concept vehicle called the Two2 that has been created using upcycled parts. Ananthan has also joined Ola Electric as Head of Design. As Ola has not launched any of the products that it has started developing recently, we haven't seen any of Ananthan’s designs in the EV makers portfolio. Ola has confirmed that we will be seeing an electric car and an electric bike in the coming years. We are sure that Ramkripa Ananthan’s contribution to Ola Electric will reflect in those vehicles.