Meet Aravinda & Preetam
Aravinda Anantharaman
Co-founder, writer, editor, communication strategist
Aravinda’s career began with a love for books that led her to work as a librarian, ghostwriter, author, and editor. She has published two biographies for the Puffin Lives series — The 14th Dalai Lama (2011) and Sunita Williams (2012) — both still in print. In 2017, she guest-edited three titles for Pratham Books, mentoring first-time authors. She has also served on the jury of the Crossword Book Awards (2016–2018) and the Publishing Next awards.
An early interest in the Tibetan community inspired collaborations with Tibetans in exile and projects to record personal histories. In 2009, she published two children’s books under her imprint Lama Mani Books to mark 50 years of exile, a project that earned her a shortlist for the British Council’s Young Publishing Entrepreneur Award. She continues her association with the community as Publication Advisor for Manjushri Education Services.
Since 2015, Aravinda has also written extensively about tea. She edited and published Still Steeping, a brand blog for Teabox.com, and covered the Indian tea industry for World Tea News, STiR Tea and Coffee and Tea Biz. She was Editor of Tea Journey (2022-23) and continues to write on tea, as a fortnightly columnist for the Mint Lounge (2019-present).
Aravinda also enjoys long form content, and has been writing periodic cover stories for the Mint Lounge.
Preetam Koilpillai
Co-founder, musician, theatre director, actor, filmmaker
Preetam began learning piano at the age of five with Professor Janssens of the Geneva Conservatory. At sixteen, he gave a recital at Mumbai’s NCPA as part of the Young Musicians series organised by Stop Gaps, and began teaching piano soon after. A year later, he received an Inlaks Scholarship to study piano and composition at the Purcell School in London.
In India, he built a career in music as a teacher, performer, and composer, collaborating with artists such as violinist Jodie McComb, sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, percussionist Sivamani, and the band Thermal and a Quarter. He served as Organist and Director at the St. Mark’s Music Academy in Bangalore, hosted classical music programmes for All India Radio and Radio Midday, and from 2013 was part of Dr. L. Subramaniam’s ensemble, performing in India, the UK, Europe, Africa, South America, Russia, and the Middle East.
Preetam’s theatre work began in 1992 with his directorial debut, a double bill of Mahesh Elkunchwar plays produced by Mahesh Dattani (Playpen). That same year, he co-directed the premiere of Dattani’s Final Solutions and played one of the principal roles. He later co-founded two theatre companies — rafiki and Black Coffee — producing and performing in over 25 productions, including appearances at major national festivals. Black Coffee’s production of Filth was invited to the inaugural Rangashankara Theatre Festival in 2004.
In 2005, Preetam moved into film, bringing influences from both music and theatre. His short documentary Passport Photos (2010) screened at 14 international film festivals in 11 countries, earning four nominations for Best Short Documentary. In 2016, he attended a summer workshop at the Prague Film School to further develop his directing and writing skills. In 2024, he made his screen acting debut in the Netflix series Killer Soup, appearing in five episodes as Dr. Sridhar.
Preetam’s long-term vision is to create a Contemporary Performing Arts Centre (COPAC) — a public space that brings music, theatre, and other art forms together, open for rehearsals, performances, and spontaneous artistic experiences.