Anand Neelakantan is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, television personality and motivational speaker. He has authored five fiction books in English and one in Malayalam. His debut work Asura, The Tale of the Vanquished is based on the Indian epics of Ramayana. His next book series was Ajaya-Roll of the Dice, Ajaya – Rise of Kali based, the two books on the epic Mahabharata told from Kaurava perspective. Anand's books voice the suppressed party or the defeated party. His fifth book Vanara, the legend of Baali, Sugreeva and Tara also follow the same pattern of voicing the defeated side. Anand Neelakantan also had signed with the producers of Baahubali, the blockbuster film, for a three-book series based on their film and the series will be a prequel to the film. The first book of this trilogy, Rise of Sivagami, was released in March 2017. Netflix has announced a webseries on the book. His books have been translated to different languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese and Indonesian Bahasa. Anand’s Asura is one of the 100 books to be read in a life time as per Amazon. The book has sold more than half a million copies across the years. Three of Anand Neelakantan’s books have been shortlisted for crossword award during the respective years and he is also listed as one among the 100 top celebrities in India in 2015, 2017 by Forbes India. All his books have got critical accreditation from various people across the world. Anand Neelakantan's fifth book Vanara, the legend of Baali, Sugreeva and Tara is published by Penguin Random House and is a best seller. DAR films and KR movies have announced that they have won the film adoption rights and will be producing a multilingual film on Vanara. Anand's Malayalam work Pennramayanam has been published by Mathrubhumi books. Anand also writes a column for New Indian Express on current affairs and his fortnightly column is called "Acute Angle".
Life and career
Anand Neelakantan is an alumnus of Government Engineering College, Trichur in Kerala. He has been working with Indian Oil Corporation since 1999. He draws cartoons for Malayalam magazines. His debut novel' was published by Leadstart Publishing on 14 May 2012. The book became a surprise bestseller, breaking into the top seller charts within a week of its launch. His second book was based on Mahabharata and was part of a two book series. Ajaya: Roll of the Dice was released in December 2014 and the sequel ' was released in July 2015. Anand Neelakantan's first book in Bahubali series, The Rise of Sivagami, from the Bahubali: Before the Beginning trilogy released on 7 March 2017. SS Rajamouli, the director of the film Baahubali, revealed the cover of the book at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2017. The book became a blockbuster and was shortlisted for Crossword Popular award 2018.
Anand Neelakantan was rated as one of the most promising writers by Indian Express, amongst the six most remarkable writers of 2012 by Daily News and Analysis and rated as the second most read writer of 2012 by Financial Express.
His first book was shortlisted for Crossword popular award in 2013 and his second book, Ajaya: Roll of the dice was shortlisted for Crossword popular award in 2014.
His book The Rise of Sivagami received accolades from top Indian book reviewers.
