As far as he can rewind, Prasoon Joshi has always felt like a storyteller. “Writing mere hone ki shart hai (Writing is the condition of my existence),” he says. No wonder he has spent last three decades of his life dabbling in every possible extension of the art form—books, advertisements, poetry, short stories, songs and screenplays. “I just wrote a musical, Radhiraaj: Love, Life, Leela. I am glad I can continue to experiment with different forms of writing,” Joshi says, as we try to decode his diverse career over an hour-long telephonic call.

Even before he entered the world of advertising, Joshi, all of 17 years of age, had published his first book, Mai Aur Woh. Born to classical vocalist parents, Joshi was surrounded by words from an early age. “It’s not like you decide one day, that from tomorrow, I will be a writer. It’s not a choice. It’s always there in you through your upbringing and how you are surrounded by that art form. I grew up reading poetry, Hindi poetry, a little bit of Sanskrit and folk music,” he shares. He knew his calling, but the question that Joshi struggled with was whether his pen could earn him a living. “Hailing from a middle class family in a small town of Uttarakhand, I was sensitive about not being a burden to my parents,” he says. So after completing his Masters in Physics, Joshi pursued an MBA course and found the sweet spot for his passion. “I found that the profession of advertising was where I could sustain myself and where there were takers for my storytelling.” Weaving sensitive, charming stories for numerous brands, Joshi revolutionised advertisements. Storytelling in Indian ads might not be accorded the same value as movies, but the poet-writer treated both the forms equally. “People talk about higher and lower art forms but I don’t distinguish like that. In ads, I told stories for brands. In films, I told stories to bring across social values to people.”