He received his first guitar when he was ten years old and would try to play Tamil and Hindi film songs and imitate the sounds of his sister's Carnatic singing with the instrument.

His interest in Western pop music developed when his father's colleague gave him some cassette tapes with songs by the Bee Gees, ABBA, Toto, Peaches and Herb, and the Pointer Sisters.

While studying naval architecture at the Indian institute of Technology, Madras (where he also met his wife Shalini), he toured India with his rock bands (The Haze and then Shakuni & the Birds of Prey), covering songs by Santana, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rush, Steely Dan, Jethro Tull, and the Scorpions and compositions like "Peaceful" and "Blues for Saraswati".

After working as a software consultant, he gave up a career in engineering and IT and moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music where he majored in Jazz and Classical Composition.

Prasanna is the mentor of Maya Neelakantan, a ten-year-old Guitar prodigy who auditioned at the America's Got Talentseason 19 in June 2024,[1] and made a global sensation with her Carnatic rendering of the "Last Resort" by Papa Roach.