When audiences walk away from a film remembering an eerie abandoned house, a lived-in family kitchen, or a meticulously recreated historical landscape, they are often responding to the work of a production designer - even if they don't realise it. While actors and directors usually occupy the spotlight, production designers are responsible for building the visual worlds that shape a film's atmosphere, emotion, and authenticity. For Hyderabad-born Rajarajeshwari 'RJ' Ragampudi, that invisible labour is not a limitation. It is the point.

“A space is never neutral. Every room, every texture, every object has the potential to become part of the narrative," says Ragampudi, who hails from Bachupally on the outskirts of Hyderabad and trained as an Architect, before pursuing an MFA in Production Design at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles - one of the most selective programmes of its kind in the world, admitting fewer than a dozen production design students each year. "Architecture taught me how people experience space. Filmmaking taught me how spaces carry emotion.”