Ravi Kinagi was born into a Kannada family. He learned the basics of filmmaking from his father Shankar Kinagi who was a producer and director. He was born and brought up in Mumbai. He worked with Rajshri Films when they were making Paheli, Naiyya, and Kanoon Ka Shikar. He also assisted S Ramanathan, Anil Ganguly, and Prashant Nanda. He then directed two Marathi films, Manuski and Halahal. Later he started making Odia films. His first Odia film Manini was said to be the first Silver Jubilee film in Odisha. He finally shifted to the Kolkata Bengali film industry where he has made numerous dumbed down remake films over the years. He speaks seven languages — Kannada, Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, and broken Bengali.