Complex sentence: Shankar had initially inquired about K. V. Anand's availability, before Nirav Shah joined the technical team as a cinematographer in mid- 2015 and visited specialist studios in the United States to research filming methods for 3D shoots.
Split into simpler sentences: Shankar had initially inquired about K. V. Anand's availability. This was before Nirav Shah joined the technical team as a cinematographer in mid- 2015, and visited specialist studios in the United States to research filming methods for 3D shoots.