K. V. Anand

Anand worked as a freelance photo journalist for leading newspapers and magazines such as Kalki, India Today, Illustrated Weekly, Aside and other national publications. Within a short period of time, his photos were published in more than 200 magazine covers and had taken photos of 10 Chief Ministers in close quarters. Anand continued to freelance in industrial photography, advertisements and cover pages for fictional Tamil novels.

Anand met cinematographer P. C. Sreeram and expressed his interest to work for him as an assistant. He joined him, serving as an apprentice for Sreeram's film such as Gopura Vasalile, Amaran, Meera, Devar Magan and Thiruda Thiruda. Actually, he joined as the sixth assistant to Sreeram when Jeeva, another prominent figure in cinematography was the first assistant to Sreeram. When director Priyadarshan had approached P. C. Sreeram to work on his Malayalam film, Thenmavin Kombath (1994), he was unavailable and thus recommended Anand to be given the opportunity. The film received positive reviews and Anand won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography for his debut venture, with the award committee noting he showed "outstanding cinematography executed with sincerity, imagination and flexibility".[2] Anand's first Tamil film was the romantic drama Kadhal Desam (1996), which also won critical acclaim for showcasing Chennai in a futuristic mould. He also then teamed up with director Shankar for the production of the political thriller Mudhalvan (2000), winning appreciation for his experimental camera ramping and the general grandeur.[3]

Anand has wielded the camera for 14 films in languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. His final work as a cinematographer came with Sivaji (2007), the Rajinikanth-starrer directed by Shankar, the most expensive Tamil film ever made at the time of release.

He then turned a film director with Kana Kandaen (2005), and his second film turned out to be a Blockbuster Ayan (2009), an action entertainer set on the backdrop of the Indo-African drug smuggling trade, with Suriya and Tamannaah in the lead roles.[4] The film opened in April 2009 to positive review, and the year's highest-grossing Tamil language film.[5]

In 2011, his third directorial Ko, starring Jiiva, Ajmal Ameer, Piaa Bajpai and Karthika Nair released to very positive response from media and public. One of the critics neatly summarized it by saying "For an audience numbed by predictable Kollywood potboilers week after week, here is an original offering from KV Anand, a fearless filmmaker who doesn't insult your intelligence. He is able to cater to the needs of both the elite as well as mass audiences, which should be applauded." Anand's fourth directorial venture saw his collaborate with Suriya again in Maattrraan (2012), and was inspired to make the film after watching a documentary about the conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker. While preparing the script, he worked closely with a team of doctors to ensure the medical condition of open-heart transplant, as shown in the film, could be showcased as realistic as possible.[3] However, the movie opened to mixed reviews from the critics and became a success at the box office. His fifth directorial Anegan (2015) starring Dhanush, Amyra Dastur and Karthik in the leading roles was released on 13 February 2015 to positive reviews and became a commercial success. Later he planned to make a script for Vijay by the same for Dulquer Salman. Moreover, the project has been delayed he planned to make a script for Kamal Hassan after his forthcoming venture of Vijay Sethupathi starrer project Kavan (2017).Kavan released to positive reviews.His next work Kaapan(2019) released to mixed and lukewarm reviews.The Times Of India cited it as lackluster

• Meera (1992)
• Sivaji: The Boss (2007)
• Maattrraan (2012)
• Kavan (2017)