Vanara

Anand Neelakantan is the author of the Baahubali trilogy, the prequel to S.S. Rajamouli’s movie. The first book in the series, The Rise of Sivagami, was released on 15 March 2017 and continues to be the no. 1 bestseller across charts. The book was on Amazon’s list of top five bestsellers for 2017.

Neelakantan is also the author of Asura: Tale of the Vanquished, which told the Ramayana from Ravan’s point of view. He followed it up with the tremendously successful Ajaya series. Neelakantan’s books have been translated into more than nine languages, including Indonesian.

In fact, S.S. Rajamouli has announced a mini-series based on Neelakantan’s books, on the lines of Game of Thrones.

Neelakantan has also written scripts/screenplays for popular TV series like Siya Ke Ram, Ashoka, Mahabali Hanuman, etc. He writes columns for The Hindu, Indian Express, Pioneer, Washington Post, etc. He also writes a fortnightly column called Acute Angle for Sunday Express. He has upcoming series planned with Discovery, Star TV, Netflix and Amazon.

Neelakantan is also a prolific writer in Malayalam and regularly publishes stories in the prestigious Malayalam magazine. He is also a cartoonist. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Aparna, daughter Ananya, son Abhinav and pet dog, Jackie the Blackie.