Shivanand made her debut in Bollywood in 1996. During her early career, she starred in the Aditya Pancholi-starrer Zanjeer (1998). She later shot to fame within a short span of time in Tollywood. She acted with many big heroes in Telugu cinema. Her debut in Telugu was with Chiranjeevi in the film Master. 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 Vamsoddarakudu. She was roped in by A.B.C.L for the Telugu film Rajahamsha opposite Abbas. She also starred in the socio-fantasy film Yamajathakudu along with Mohan Babu. In 2000, she featured in the film Yuvaraju along with Mahesh Babu and Simran Bagga. She performed an item song in the 2008 released film Homam which was directed by J.D. Chakravarthy.

She has a younger sister Shilpa Anand, who is a well known film and television actress.^[4]