His Story
In 2004, ten-year-old Kashyap was living in a hostel in Surat, 80 kilometres from home, when something stopped him in his tracks. A crowd had gathered around his friend's father, a man who had come from Mumbai. Kashyap pushed through to see what everyone was staring at.
It was a drawing book filled with portraits so lifelike they looked better than photographs. They had soul. Kashyap watched the man create faces that seemed ready to breathe, each line pulling the person on the page closer to life.
Standing there among his classmates, he made a silent promise to himself:
"One day, I'll also make art like this. Real. Live. Beautiful."
He became what he now calls a "last bench artist" — filling textbook margins with sketches, drawing cricketers like MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar on newspaper-covered books, and practising faces directly in pen with no eraser and no second chances. He had no mentor and no formal training. What he had was a belief planted deep by his Guru at Tattvagnan Vidyapeeth:
"Education means to draw out the strength within."
That belief became the torch he would carry through the hardest years of his life.
The Spark
"To date, I have not taken art as a joke. Not for a single day, not for a minute. I once completed an artwork in 34 hours, sleeping only two hours in between. If you asked me to make art, I was always ready. I never felt like I couldn't or didn't want to. It was like breathing."
— Kashyap Tandel
In 2012, when his studies ended, Kashyap had no degree, no roadmap, and a passion that everyone around him considered impractical. "Art? What will you do with art? Get a proper job." So he did what he had to do. He woke up at 1 AM to join his father in the fish trading business, drove a Tempo to Surat, and spent every day in exhausting physical labour. Then he moved to delivering medicines door to door for a medical agency.
His first salary was ₹3,000 per month.
But through every sleepless night and aching body, Kashyap never stopped making art. After work, when his legs gave out, he would sit on the floor — yes, the floor — and create. People walked past and stared. Some laughed. He had no answers for them. He only knew he could not stop.
Small portrait orders trickled in. ₹500 here. ₹800 there. Each one whispered:
keep going. In 2015, his relatives pushed him toward the shipping industry — good money, stable future. Kashyap spoke to every friend already working in shipping. Every single one said the same thing: "Yes, there is money. But life isn't good." Many had realised this at 35 or 40, too late to change course.
"I'll realise it now," Kashyap decided. "At 20."
He chose art. He chose the uncertain path because the certain one felt like a prison.
Key Insight
Excellence isn't about formal training. It's about obsession. When you become so good that people can't ignore you, opportunities stop being things you chase — they become things that find you.
On December 26, 2019, Kashyap conducted his first workshop — renting a room next to his shop, laying out wedding tables covered in green carpet, and inviting people to learn. The teacher in him had been born.
Then came March 2020. COVID-19 shut down the world. But something unexpected happened for Kashyap: his art orders continued. Steadily. Whilst millions watched their income disappear, his held on. He sat with that reality and asked himself one question:
"If art works when nothing else does, what happens if I give it everything?"
On June 19, 2020, with no microphone and no professional setup, he began recording his first online course. Every night, he waited until everyone in his house was asleep. Then he woke at 3 AM and recorded in silence. For 11 straight days, he slept only three hours a night.
On July 1, 2020, he launched Kashyap Art online. Within five days, 15 students enrolled at ₹1,500 each — ₹22,500 in revenue. The amount wasn't life-changing. The proof was.
His pricing evolved with his reputation: ₹500 per portrait, then ₹3,000, ₹5,000, ₹8,000, ₹10,000, ₹15,000, ₹20,000. His highest single portrait earned him ₹50,000. On August 15, 2021 — Independence Day — he officially launched Kashyap Art as a full-fledged brand and studio. When he saw that board carrying his name, he cried.
Within three years, he had trained over 1,000 students and conducted workshops attended by more than 5,000 people — all from Valsad, with no degree and no formal backing.
On October 27, 2025, Kashyap was inducted into the ILH Hall of Fame. The middle-class boy from a small town. The artist who used to sit on shop floors. As he wrote his thank-you notes backstage, tears rolled down his face. That award was the universe's answer to the challenge he had made two decades earlier:
"Let's see if hard work really brings what they promise."
🏆
Final Outcome
ILH Hall of Fame · 1,000+ Students · ₹50,000 per Portrait
From ₹3,000/month delivering medicines to earning ₹30,000 in two hours — all from a small town, with no degree, powered only by excellence and belief.
Launch your Graphy
