A photojournalist-turned-cinematographer and eventually a director, K.V. Anand began his career in the South Indian film industry as a promising cinematographer in the mid-90s. Winning the National Film Award for Best Cinematography for his debut Malayalam-language movie Thenmavin Kombath (1994), Anand went on to work in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi film industries. Working with some of the top Indian directors such as S. Shankar, Priyadarshan, and Rajkumar Santoshi, the cinematographer ventured into directing movies a decade later in 2005 with the movie Kana Kandaen. In 2007, he worked on the Tamil movie Sivaji, the costliest Tamil movie at the time of its release, starring Rajinikanth and won the Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer. Anand has also worked on the Hindi movies Josh (2000), Nayak: The Real Hero (2001), and Khakee (2004).

Early Life
Anand was born to Anasuya Venkataraman and late K.M. Venkatesan in Chennai, India. He spent his childhood in Pulicat, Tamil Nadu, and holds a Bachelor`s Degree in Physics, which he obtained from the DG Vaishnav College in 1986. He later completed his Master`s in Visual Communications from the Loyola College, Chennai, India.

Anand was an explorer at heart since his college days and regularly participated in trekking expeditions to places such as the Himalayas. His passion for visiting remote places in India sowed the seeds of photography, which eventually paved way for his desire to take up cinematography as a profession. He also actively participated in various national level photography contests and won several photography awards.

Anand then began to work as a freelance photojournalist and was associated with some of the leading magazines and newspapers of India including India Today, Kalki, and Illustrated Weekly. Within a short span of time, Anand`s work was published in over 200 magazine covers, while he also had photographed 10 Chief Ministers in close quarters. Hoping to secure a full-time job as a photojournalist with India Today, he applied at the publication, however, he was turned down. A disappointed Anand then left to the Andaman Islands and it was during this trip that he decided to become a cinematographer.

Personal Life
Anand is married to Sasikala and the couple has two daughters - Sadhana and Sneha.

Movie Career
As a Cinematographer
Anand began his career in the early 90s by working as an assistant to ace cinematographer P.C. Sreeram. He was Sreeram`s sixth assistant while Jeeva was the first assistant. Anand worked with Sreeram on several films including Gopura Vasalile, Meera, and Thiruda Thiruda. Later, Priyadarshan approached Sreeram to work with him on the Malayalam film Thenmavin Kombath. However, as Sreeram could not give him dates, he recommended Anand, who then worked on Thenmavin Kombath (1994). He made the most of the opportunity and did a commendable job on his debut winning the National Film Award for Best Cinematography. In the same year, he worked on another Priyadarshan movie titled Minnaram (1994). The following year, he made his debut in the Telugu film industry with the movie Punya Bhoomi Naa Desam. In 1996, Anand received critical acclaim for his work on his debut Tamil-language romantic movie Kadhal Desam. He was appreciated for portraying a futuristic Chennai in the movie and won the Screen Award South for Best Cinematography as well.

After finding success in the South Indian film industry, Anand then ventured into Hindi cinema in 1998. Priyadarshan, who gave him the break in the film industry industry, roped him in for the movie Doli Saja Ke Rakhna starring Jyothika and Akshaye Khanna. His next project Mudhalvan (1999), a political thriller, directed by S. Shankar, went on to have a theatrical run for over 200 days and won several awards as well. The film was later remade in Hindi as Nayak: The Real Hero (2001) and in Bengali as Minister Fatakeshto (2007).

In 2000, Anand worked on his second Bollywood movie, Josh starring Shah Rukh Khan, Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.He followed this up with another Hindi movie Nayak: The Real Hero (2001) which is a remake of the 1999 hit Tamil movie Mudhalvan. However, unlike its Tamil counterpart, the movie failed at the box office, primarily because of poor marketing. But over the years, Nayak has emerged to be a cult film owing to its followers.The next year he worked on two films - The Legend of Bhagat Singh directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and Virumbugiren directed by Susi Ganeshan. For the former, Anand won the SICA Award for Best Cinematography. A couple of years later, Anand would go on to collaborate with Santoshi again on the movie Khakee (2004) which starred Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Atul Kulkarni, and Tushar Kapoor. He next worked on the movie Boys (2003) and Chellamae (2004).

In 2007, he teamed up with director S. Shankar once again to work on the movie Sivaji starring Rajinikanth. At the time of its release, Sivaji was the most expensive Tamil film and it fetched him the Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer.

As a Director
After working as a cinematographer on several films, Anand took to directing movies in 2005 with the movie Kana Kandaen. However, it was his second movie - Ayan (2009) that won him high praises and went on to become the solo blockbuster of the year of the Tamil film industry. The action movie starring Suriya, Prabhu, and Tamannaah, fetched several awards with Indiaglitz stating: "Though the storyline is familiar and oft-seen in the past, the pacy narration and captivating visuals provide the necessary pep to the film". Anand later revealed that he had based the story of Ayan on the harrowing experience he had while he was waiting for clearance at customs during his visit to Singapore. He was also keen to showcase how smugglers often transported drugs and so to maintain the authenticity in the movie he met several customs officials and retired smugglers.

Anand repeated the success of his previous film with his next release Ko (2011), a political thriller starring Jiiva, Ajmal, Ameer, Karthika Nair, and Bajpai. Alike his second movie, Ko had a 175-day run at the box office and was declared as a blockbuster. The Hindu praised the movie, stating: "a tale with a realistic twist" while The Times of India stated: "With Ko, director Anand gives notice of his immense talent once again, making a movie that is all set to lord over the box office this summer."

In 2012, K.V. Anand added another star to his resume with the sci-fi thriller Maattraaan starring Suriya, Kajal Aggarwal, Sachin Khedekar, and Tara. Suriya, who portrayed the role of conjoined twins was much appreciated for his performance while K.V. Anand was yet again praised for his direction. Behindwoods.com stated: There is a pattern in K. V. Anand`s films. There is a definite social message which he masquerades with commercial components and packages it interestingly. Maattrraan also follows the route and it delivers what it promises- a rich and stylish entertainer with an interesting story". His next project Anegan, a romantic thriller starring Dhanush, Amyra Dastur, Karthik, Aishwarya Devan, Ashish Vidyarthi, and Jagan, was met with positive reviews. Anand was specifically praised for narrating a cliched story in an enterprising manner: Udhav Naig of The Hindu quoted: "With most commercial films recycling the usual plot and its many tropes, full credit to K.V. Anand for striving to narrate a banal plot - full of deja vu and cliches - in an enterprising manner."

Anand carried forward the success of Maattrraan to his next movie Kavan (2017), a satirical thriller film. The movie, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Madonna Sebastian went on to become a blockbuster at the box office. This film marked Anand`s third collaboration with AGS Entertainment and the director once again proved why he is considered as one of the top directors of Tamil cinema by