Anand Neelakantan (born 5 December 1973) is an Indian author. 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. He has authored three fiction books based on the Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The producers of Baahubali, the blockbuster film announced that Anand Neelakantan will be writing a 3 book Series based on their film Baahubali and the series will be a prequel to the film. His books have been translated to different languages such as Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese and Indonesian Bahasa. Awards and Accolades : Kalinga International Literary Award, 2017, Kalinga Literary Festival. 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 Asura: Tale of the Vanquished 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 (Baahubali #1) received accolades from top Indian book reviewers.
