Karan Acharya

Karan Acharya is an Indian graphic artist. He is known for his depiction of Hanuman and other works. He is inspired by the artist Raja Ravi Verma.

Early life and education Karan was raised in the Kudlu village in the Kasaragod district of Kerala, He completed 12th grade at Tagore College Vidyanagar in 2003 and then continued to study art for two years under mentors including Laxmish Acharya and Girish Acharya.

Rudra Hanuman graphic

In 2015 on the request of his friends, Acharya designed this graphic as a flag for the annual temple festival in his village consisting of a graphic of Hanuman with black outlines and saffron shades. It was posted on social media and became a popular image across nation, In 2017, a trend was noticed in Bangalore with the Hanuman graphic spotted across windscreens of several vehicles in the city. Acharya gets no royalties from sticker creators or manufacturers, though he states he is pleased his work is being seen by others and that his work went viral in 3 years. In 2018, he began a company to sell his artwork on t-shirts, after obtaining the copyright on his Hanuman art.

The prime minister of India Narendra Modi praised him for his work, calling the work a pride during his visit to the city for an election rally in 2018. He was also invited to the Ayodhya art festival in Uttar Pradesh, and was part of the first Mangaluru literary festival. In 2020, Acharya took to social media and has been creating art on requests by common people as per their aspirations using photoshop manipulation techniques. Owing to his popularity he received over 2000 requests for photo edits. While he does few of them free of cost, for some he charges fees.