Born and brought up in Tirunelveli town India in South Tamil Nadu, Nivas began learning Carnatic music at age ten and completed all seven grades of the piano while studying at Magdalene Matriculation Higher Secondary School in the town.
He then moved to Chennai with his family and enrolled in the Visual Communications course at SRM Institute of Science and Technology and actively began seeking opportunities in the film music industry.
[1] Nivas was chosen by Rajesh Vaidhya to accompany him on tours as a keyboard player and the opportunity gave him the chance to network with other young professionals and work on the music for short films.
[1] Thegidi won positive reviews for its music, and the film's success at the box office meant that Nivas K. Prasanna received attention for his work.
For the album he worked alongside singers including Shankar Mahadevan, Andrea Jeremiah and Abhay Jodhpurkar.