K. V. Anand

Photojournalism came first for K. V. Anand (Karimanal Venkatesan Anand). Between 1988 and 1992 he freelanced for publications such as Kalki and India Today, and his pictures appeared on more than 200 magazine covers. Born in Chennai on 30 October 1966, he spent his childhood in Pulicat, took a physics degree from DG Vaishnav College and a master's in visual communication from Loyola College, and treks in the Himalayas drew him to photography. His film work, as cinematographer and director, was mostly in Tamil cinema. He trained under cinematographer P. C. Sreeram on films including Thevar Magan and Thiruda Thiruda. When Sreeram could not take on Priyadarshan's Malayalam film Thenmavin Kombathu (1994), he recommended Anand, and that first assignment won him the National Film Award for Best Cinematography. In all he shot about 14 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi, among them Kadhal Desam (1996) and Shankar's Mudhalvan (1999), ending with Sivaji (2007). He turned director with the thriller Kana Kandaen (2005), starring Prithviraj Sukumaran, and concentrated on direction from then on. He was a founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers. He died on 30 April 2021.