Prasanna grew up in Chennai, India and developed an interest for the guitar at the age of five after hearing his neighbor play. 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.
In high school, he became known as a guitarist with local band XIth Commandment. 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". Prasanna's musical development led him to blues and jazz. 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.