No Sleeping On The Job!

As Lead Interior Designer at Bentley Motors Limited, Rajesh Kutty seems to have found his niche, even while he sometimes sacrifices sleep to work on other design projects

When did you discover your passion for automobiles?

RK: I remember sneaking out at night as a five-year-old in Colombo and jumping into my father’s office car, a Mercedes Benz 180. It had an off white colored steering wheel and a red interior. It was Mercedes Benz cars that I was in love with first, and then cars in general!

Was automobile design a natural progression?

RK: After school I chose Mechanical Engineering, as I was hoping it would get me to work on or with cars. At the time I wanted to be in the car industry, but didn’t know I could pursue car design as a career path. During my final year in Engineering, I came across an advert for CEED, at IDC in IIT Bombay. I was struck by how different and reader friendly the poster was. Before long I managed a good score at the entrance exam, and was soon drawing cars in preparation of a portfolio. I visited the IDC campus before the interview to understand what Industrial Design was about. Those were the days when the internet was still nonexistent. I met a student who was designing a yacht, and the whole atmosphere impressed me. I knew this is where I wanted to be. At the interview at IDC, one of the Jurors advised me to pursue the job I had in hand (from my Engineering campus interview) and I was denied the design seat. I was fortunate to get a placement as a Graduate Engineer at Telco (now Tata Motors) Pune. I did a further interview to be placed as a Vehicle Testing Engineer so that I could stay away from the production line and be test driving cars, something I enjoyed very much.