Shivanand was born in Mumbai, India, but she is a Kannadiga girl hailing from Karnataka. She attended school there. She is the elder sister of actress Shilpa Anand. She is married to Sagar Anand.

Career

Her debut in Telugu was with Chiranjeevi in a movie called Master (film). The film turned out to be a blockbuster and this helped her to garner more films. She later on acted with Nagarjuna Akkineni in the film Seetharamaraju. The film did average business. She also acted with Nandamuri Balakrishna in the film Vamshodarakudu.

She was roped in by A.B.C.L for the Telugu film Rajahamsha opposite Abbas. The film failed miserably at the box-office. She also starred in the socio-fantasy film Yamajathakudu along with Mohan Babu. In the year 2000, she featured in the film Yuvaraju along with Mahesh Babu and Simran Bagga. Her last hit film in Telugu was Simha Raashi; that was in 2001. After that she faded away slowly.

She performed an item song in the 2008 released film Homam (film) which was directed by J.D. Chakravarthy. Her sister Shilpa Shivanand also acted in a film Vishnu which was the debut for Manchu Vishnuvardhan. The film bombed. There were rumours that Shilpa was slapped by Mohan Babu during the making of the film.