At Chitra Painters, our journey is not just part of the history of Out of Home (OOH) advertising in Kerala, it is where that history began. We are not just a part of this industry we are its very foundation. Our journey began in 1950, a time when the concept of advertising was still unfamiliar in this part of the world, and the state of Kerala hadn’t even been officially formed yet.
From the moment we installed the very first hoarding in Kerala, we have been pioneers, introducing an entirely new medium for communication and brand visibility. Over the last seven decades, we have grown from a single idea into Kerala’s most respected and far-reaching outdoor advertising company, with our media assets strategically placed across key urban and transit points, they have become an integral part of the everyday visual landscape across Kerala’s towns and cities.
The seeds of Chitra Painters were sown by our founder, Shri. N. Madhavan, a multifaceted visionary from the provincial town of Mavelikkara. He was an artist by talent, an entrepreneur by instinct, and a political thinker by association. Upon moving to Ernakulam (modern-day Kochi), he immersed himself in the socio-cultural fabric of the time, often frequenting the headquarters of the then-emerging Communist Party of India.
It was here that he developed friendships with towering figures like EMS Namboodiripad, AK Gopalan, Jyoti Basu, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, and ONV Kurup, luminaries who would go on to shape Kerala’s literary and political landscape. It was the celebrated writer and critic Vaikom Chandrasekharan Nair who coined the name “Chitra Painters“, perfectly capturing the artistic essence and visual ambition of the new venture.
With that, Kerala’s first outdoor advertising company was born.

