 His cousin is the novelist and writer Shreekumar Varma.Revathi Thirunal is next in line to Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma the head of Thrippappur branch  The Royal Family of Travancore are custodians of the famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.He was educated at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore and at UC Berkeley where he completed his MBA in the 1970s before taking on family businesses.