His parents were Venkata Das, estate manager under Nawaab Raza Ali Khan of Machilipatnam, and Lakshmi Bai.
Yoganand joined Jiten Benarjee of Newtone Studios after his father's death and later worked with famous cinematographer M. A. Rehman.
He became the in-house filmmaker for his Krishna Pictures and made many box-office successes including the Madurai Veeran (1956) which sowed the seeds for M. G. Ramachandran to be projected as more than a mere good-looking hero.
His films include Thodu Dongalu, Ilavelpu, Kodalu Diddina Kapuram, Ummadi Kutumbam, Muga Nomu, Jai Jawan, Vemulavada Bheema Kavi, Kathanayakuni Katha, Dabbuku Lokam Dasoham, Jayasimha, Vade Veedu, Thodu Dongalu, Thikka Shankarayya and Pelli Sandadi.
He had the unique distinction of directing all the top stars, both in Telugu and Tamil film fields such as N. T. Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Relangi, Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, Savitri, Padmini, Vyjayanthimala, Jayalalitha, Pandari Bai, B. Saroja Devi, Devika, Sivaji Ganesan, M. G. Ramachandran, Gemini Ganesan, S. S. Rajendran and M. N. Nambiar, K.