Anand Neelakantan

Anand Neelakantan is an Indian author and screenwriter best known for giving the "epic's villains" their voice. His bestselling novels Asura (the story of Ravana), Ajaya (the Kaurava's war) and Vanara shook up mythological fiction with their sympathy for the outcast and the defeated.

A former banker, Neelakantan turned to writing after a decade in the industry; his work has sold over a million copies and won him comparison with the engraving of the Mahabharata. He has also written dialogues for the Ramayana-inspired Indian television series and for films, becoming one of the most popular prose-narrators of Indian mythology today.